INDUSTRIAL 
JOURNALISM 


Lectures  in  the  Forum 

IN 

Industrial  Journalism 


At  the  New  York  University 
Season  of  1915 


Under  the  Auspices  of 

THE   NEW  YORK  TRADE   PRESS 
ASSOCIATION 


With  an  Introduction  by 

ALBERT  FREDERICK  WILSON 

Department  of  Journalism,  New  York  University 


NEW    YORK 

ADVERTISING  &  SELLING  MAGAZINE,  INC. 

1915 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
Advertising  &  Selling  Magazine.  Inc. 


All  Rights  Reserved 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 5 

By  Albert  Frederick  Wilson. 

The  History  and   Development  of   Industrial   Jour- 
nalism   9 

By  Charles  T.  Root. 

Business  Press  Opportunities 28 

By  E.  A.  Simmons. 

The  Reasons  for  Trade  and  Technical  Papers       .        .       47 
By  James  H.  McGraw. 

The  Special  Service  of  the  Class  Paper  to  an  Industry       59 
By  H.  M.  Swetland. 

The  Technical  Paper  and  the  Manufacturer       .        ,       71 
By  John  A.  Hill. 

The  News  Service  of  the  Trade  and  Technical  Press       85 
By  W.  H.  Taylor. 

The  Standards  of  Practice  of  the  Business  Press  .      .       97 
By  W.  H.  Ukers. 

The  Making  of  a  Trade  Paper 114 

By  John  Clyde  Oswald. 


407^0-^ 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  a  significant  thing  that  marked  industrial  energy  in  a 
nation  is  always  a  by-product^ — the  result  of  cooperative  thinking. 
An  insular  state  of  mind  grows  a  row  of  potatoes  on  a  side  hill 
where  its  grandfather  planted  a  hundred  years  before.  The 
progressive  sum  leads  out  to  exhaustion.  A  man  thinking  alone 
lets  his  ideas  eat  in  on  the  species.  Men  thinking  together  fer- 
tilize energy  through  the  process  of  attrition.  Dynamics  knows 
of  no  force  that  can  compare  with  that  created  when  strong 
men's  ideas  rub  elbows.  It  is  not  sloth  that  endangers  a  nation's 
progress- — that  can  easily  be  cauterized.  The  insidious  peril  is 
insular  energy  working  out  to  self-exhaustion. 

Chronic  insularity,  with  its  attending  evils,  was  torn  to  shreds 
by  the  teeth  of  the  printing  press.  Men  no  longer  plant  potatoes 
year  after  year  on  the  side  hill.  Somewhere,  a  printing  press 
jammed  its  indignant  jaws  together  and  stopped  the  folly.  By 
that  act  the  press,  the  potato  patch,  and  the  enlightened  energy 
became  social  factors.  There  is  nothing  more  vital  to  society 
than  the  printing  press  that  tells  men  how  to  work. 

In  this  small  volume  of  lectures  we  have  gathered  together 
the  addresses  which  were  delivered  before  the  Forum  in  In- 
dustrial Journalism  at  New  York  University  during  the  session 
of  1914-1915.  The  purpose  of  the  Forum  was  to  acquaint  young 
men  and  women  of  the  tmiversity  world  with  the  opportunities 
the  business  press  offered  for  life  work.  The  Department  of 
Journalism  of  New  York  University,  in  cooperation  with  the 
New  York  Trade  Press  Association,  presents  this  book  as  the 
first  contribution  toward  a  record  of  the  beginnings  and  develop- 
ment of  industrial  journalism  in  America. 

University  training  for  business  journalists  was  first  sug- 
gested by  Mr.  Horace  M.  Swetland.  Several  years  ago  he  wrote 
Dean  Joseph  French  Johnson,  of  the  School  of  Commerce, 
Accounts  and  Finance,  proposing  that  the  Department  of  Jour- 
nalism at  New  York  University  institute  a  lecture  course  in 
trade  and  class  journalism.  Dean  Johnson  immediately  recog- 
nized the  service  that  such  a  course  might  accomplish.  He  turned 
the  matter  over  to  a  committee  to  consult  with  the  New  York 
Trade   Press  Association,   his  one   stipulation  being  that   if   the 

5 


^6^  -'  "^'    '  INTRODUCTION 

course  were  founded  the  instructors  must  be  men  of  practical 
experience  in  the  field  of  business  publishing.  Under  the  Presi- 
dency of  Mr.  William  H.  Ukers,  the  New  York  Trade  Press 
Association  determined  to  offer  preliminary  information  on  the 
aims  and  scope  of  the  business  press  through  the  Forum  in 
Industrial  Journalism. 

The  Forum  was  not  designed  to  offer  a  formal  academic 
course  of  instruction.  There  is  no  attempt  here  to  cover  the 
making  and  editing  of  a  business  journal  in  all  its  technical  de- 
tail. The  first  step  was  to  inform  university  students  of  the 
possibilities  of  the  industrial  field.  Very  little  has  been  known 
about  these  opportunities.  Even  in  the  allied  fields  of  journalism 
there  has  been  a  surprising  ignorance  of  the  work  done  by  the 
industrial  journals.  The  Forum  purposed  to  tell  young  men  and 
women  what  an  industrial  journal  was,  what  it  did,  how  it  was 
made,  and  the  chances  it  supplied  for  a  satisfactory  life  work. 

How  well  the  Forum  lecturers  accomplished  their  purpose 
can  be  ascertained  by  a  careful  reading  of  these  pages.  The 
lectures  are  inspiring,  personal  stories  of  success  and  constructive 
work.  We  have  here  a  handful  of  pioneer  publishers  who  have 
made  industrial  journalism  what  it  is  to-day.  They  have  told 
in  a  sincere,  straightforward  manner  what  they  put  into  their 
journals  to  make  them  of  vital  service.  We  of  the  University 
have  felt  especially  gratified  that  we  were  able  to  present  these 
men  of  dominating  energy  and  courage  to  the  student  classroom. 
It  is  such  cooperation  as  this  that  gives  the  modern  municipal 
university  its  opportunity. 

The  lectures  really  need  very  little  introduction.  They  have 
explained  the  purpose  and  working  methods  of  the  business 
press  more  clearly  than  I  could  hope  to  do.  However,  in 
reading  over  the  papers,  I  have  been  impressed  with  one  phase 
of  the  work  which  the  industrial  journals  are  doing  which,  I 
think,  has  not  been  strongly  enough  emphasized.  That  phase 
is  the  social  benefit  attained  through  the  reaction  of  the  service 
done  for  the  industrial  life  of  the  nation.  I  do  not  mean  to 
suggest  that  industrial  publishing  is  a  philanthropic  mental  con- 
dition. It  is  much  as  Mr.  Hill  has  said,  not  even  a  profession, 
but  a  business,  pure  and  simple.  Still,  the  reaction  of  honest, 
constructive  business  service  is  always  in  favor  of  the  social  good. 
It  would  not  be  difficult  to  establish  the  fact  that  social  welfare 
rests  on  nothing  so  important  as  honest  industrial  service.  If 
we  grant,  then,  that  this  service  is  being  rendered  we  must  not 
forget  as  a  social  body  the  debt  we  owe.  It  is  just  as  vital  to  the 
nation's  industrial  life  that  the  business  press  have  all  the  privi- 


INTRODUCTION  7 

leges  of  easy  and  cheap  distribution  as  it  is  to  the  world  of  cur- 
rent events  to  have  second-class  newspaper  and  magazine  entry. 

In  closing  this  short  preface  I  have  been  tempted  to  lift  a 
few  quotations  from  the  lectures  and  place  them  here  for 
emphasis. 

Mr.  Ukers'  "  Standards  of  Practice  "  ought  to  have  a  page 
to  themselves  in  this  book,  Mr.  Swetland's  "  the  desire  of  in- 
dustrial supremacy  mxay  be  mentioned  as  one  of  the  great  indirect 
benefits  bequeathed  by  an  industrial  publisher  to  an  industry,"  is 
splendid.  And  this  from  Mr.  McGraw :  "  the  time  is  at  hand 
when  the  service  rendered  the  reader  through  the  advertising 
pages  (of  an  industrial  journal)  ranks  with  that  provided  him 
by  the  text  pages  .  .  .  the  messages  are  of  immediate  value." 
"  Summed  up,"  says  Mr.  Simmons,  "  the  inside  story  of  success 
of  any  trade,  technical  or  class  journal  lies  in  the  determination 
to  make  a  paper  that  will  lead  the  industry  to  which  it  is  de- 
voted— that  will  be  a  motor,  not  a  trailer;  that  will  show  men 
how  to  build  a  business  and  run  it  economically  and  efficiently." 
"  It  is  of  the  highest  significance,"  says  ]\Ir.  Root,  "  that  the 
clientele  of  the  business  press  is  made  up  of  the  industrial  and 
mercantile  bone  and  sinew  of  the  nation."  I  like  Mr.  Taylor's : 
"  The  trade  and  technical  press  stands  for  the  American  business 
man.  It  believes  in  his  genius,  his  brain,  his  honesty,  and  his 
integrity ;  that  he  is  engaged  in  solving  great  problems,  the 
solution  of  which  will  bring  benefit  to  mankind."  I  should  like 
to  quote  some  of  those  remarkable  illustrations  of  the  right 
and  wrong  way  to  print  which  were  furnished  by  Mr.  Oswald, 
but  his  slides  cannot  be  set  in  type,  unfortunately.  And  last, 
I  must  quote  that  ringing  word  of  good  cheer  and  welcome  to 
Youth  from  Mr.  Hill.  It  has  so  much  of  Youth  in  itself.  "  I 
am  not  one  of  that  vast  army  who  declare  that  their  field  is 
overrun  and  no  good.  The  technical  paper  field  is  good,  and 
needs  brains  and  energy  and  initiative  and  hustle,  just  as  much 
as  ever,  and  the  rewards  are  just  as  sure,  and  liable  to  be  larger. 
...  It  always  makes  me  smile  to  hear  a  master  workman 
announce  that  he  wouldn't  want  a  son  of  his  to  learn  his  busi- 
ness— I  wish  I  had  one  that  wanted  to  learn  mine.  I'm  not  afraid 
some  bright  young  man  will  take  my  place.  I'm  afraid  he 
won't." 

Albert  Frederick  Wilson. 
Department  of  Journalism, 
New  York  University. 


The  History  and  Development  of 
Industrial  Journalism 

First   Lecture    in   the    Forum   in    Industrial   Journalism   at    the 
New  York  University,  Feb.   lo,  191 5 

By   CHARLES   T.   ROOT 
President,  The  Root  Newspaper  Association. 

I  have  been'  asked  to  open  this  evening  a  series  of  lectures 
on  Industrial  Journalism,  with  some  account  of  the  history  and 
development  of  this  branch  of  newspaperdom.  As  this  is  the 
primary  talk,  it  will  naturally  include  a  good  deal  that  is  elemen- 
tary. If,  therefore,  a  part  of  what  I  say  comes  to  you  as  a  twice 
told  tale,  you  will  please  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  my  duty  under 
the  assignment  given  me  to  begin  at  the  beginning. 

I  look  at  Journalism  as  divided  something  as  follows :  The 
broadest  division  is  into  General  and  Specialized  publications. 
Under  the  "  General  "  heading  come  the  dailies,  the  country 
weeklies  and  the  weekly  and  monthly  magazines.  Under  the 
"  Specialized  "  heading  fall  almost  all  other  periodical  publica- 
tions, including  the  Fraternal,  Propagandist,  Scientific,  Religious, 
Agricultural  and  Business  papers.  Business  papers  are  again 
subdivided  into  those  relating  to  Production,  those  to  Distribution 
and  those  to  Finance.  The  terminology  employed  in  discriminat- 
ing among  publications  is  not  very  exact,  but  I  assume  that  by 
the  term  Industrial  Journalism  in  the  title  of  the  subject  which 
is  assigned  to  me,  is  intended  what  in  my  classification  I  have 
called  Business  Journalism.  I  prefer  to  use  the  latter  as  being 
the  broader  term.  Sometimes  the  whole  grand  division  of  Spe- 
cialized Journalism  is  lumped  under  the  term^  Class  Papers,  and 
very  frequently  the  term  Class  Journals  is  employed  to  designate 
the  subdivision  which  I  have  called  Business  Journals,  and  which 
again  are  indiscriminately  called  Trade  Journals ;  or,  if  the 
speaker  wishes  to  be  more  exact.  Trade  and  Technical  Journals. 
The  general  distinction  between  Trade  and  Technical  Journals  is 
that  the  latter  devotes  itself  mainly  to  the  problems  of  production 

9 


10  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

and  use,  while  the  former  has  chiefly  to  do  with  those  of  dis- 
tribution. In  many  publications  these  two  fields  find  treatment 
side  by  side,  but  the  general  distinction  between  them  holds  true. 
For  the  purposes  of  this  talk,  it  will  suffice  to  note  this  dift'erentia- 
tion  between  these  two  kinds  of  business  papers  and  then  to  treat 
them  as  one. 

Let  me  give  you  a  brief  sketch  of  the  origin  and  rise  of  this 
branch  of  publishing.  The  business  paper,  that  is,  broadly 
speaking,  the  periodical  devoted  to  the  production  or  distribution, 
or  both,  of  some  class  or  related  classes  of  merchandise,  is  the 
product  of  a  highly  evolved  commercial  system.  When  trans- 
portation and  communication  were  slow  and  difficult  and  each 
community  supplied  its  own  wants  and  formed  its  own  market, 
there  was  no  need  for  this  adjunct  of  modern  trade.  The  seed  of 
the  business  journal,  indeed,  existed  in  commerce,  but  in  order 
that  this  seed  might  sprout  the  ground  had  first  to  be  plowed  by 
the  locomotive  and  fertilized  by  the  electric  telegraph.  When  the 
conditions  were  right  it  made  its  appearance. 

In  order  to  begin  at  the  beginning,  I  must  ask  you  to  step 
back  with  me  into  the  first  half  of  the  last  century.  It  was  in 
the  year  1846  that  two  men,  William  Burroughs,  Jr.,  and  Robert 
Boyd,  by  name,  ventured  on  a  novel  experiment :  that  of  launch- 
ing a  weekly  paper  devoted  particularly  to  the  dry  goods  trade. 
When  the  first  number  of  this  new  periodical  appeared  under 
the  title  ''  Dry  Goods  Reporter  and  Commercial  Glance,"  it 
established  two  records  at  least,  and  perhaps  three — one  that 
the  dry  goods  trade  was  the  first  to  have  its  own  journalistic 
mouthpiece  in  this  country,  and  another  that  the  paper  thus 
founded  was  long  to  be  the  dean  of  trade  papers  in  America. 
The  possible  third  record,  of  which  I  am  not  so  certain,  was 
that  thus  was  established  the  first  strictly  trade  paper  in  the 
world.  I  am  quite  certain  that  this  record  will  stand  unless  it 
should  prove  that  England  had  witnessed  some  earlier  but  un- 
successful experiment  in  this  line.  At  any  rate,  Mr.  Burroughs' 
paper  is  the  only  trade  journal  that  can  boast  continuous  issues 
from  that  ancient  period. 

By  reason  of  its  being  the  first  of  its  kind,  and  of  its  un- 
broken continuity,  it  seems  natural  to  take  this  publication  and 
to  trace  its  career  as  a  type  and  illustration  of  the  growth  of 
American  specialized  business  journalism.  There  is  another  rea- 
son for  doing  this  in  my  own  case  and  that  is  that  I  know  more 
about  this  paper  than  any  other,  having  been  myself  connected 
with  it  for  over  twenty-five  years.  I  presume  there  is  no  one 
in  this  audience  who  does  not  know  of  the  proverbial  modesty 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  ii 

of  newspaper  men,  and  you  will  all,  therefore,  appreciate  the 
distress  that  it  must  cause  me  to  talk  so  much  about  my  own 
affairs.  But  in  the  discharge  of  my  duty  I  feel  that  I  must  con- 
quer my  shrinking  and  tell  you  more  about  the  growth  and 
development  of  this  paper,  which  is  universally  acknowledged  to 
be  a  type  and  representative  of  what  is  best  in  American  busi- 
ness journalism. 

I  have  already  stated  that  the  baptismal  name  of  our  original 
trade  paper  was  "  Dry  Goods  Reporter  and  Commercial  Glance." 
The  earliest  files  of  this  paper  have  been  lost  and  were  it  not  for 
the  memory  of  one  of  its  original  employees,  dead  now  these 
many  years,  I  should  not  be  quite  sure  of  the  accuracy  of  the 
title,  and  that  for  a  very  curious  reason.  Some  twenty  years 
ago,  I  learned  that  there  was  in  the  hands  of  a  London  dealer 
in  old  books  and  manuscripts  a  letter  of  William  M.  Thackeray, 
in  which  the  illustrious  novelist  made  reference  to  this  American 
publication.  I  immediately  purchased  the  letter,  which  was 
apparently  addressed  to  Leigh  Hunt,  poet  and  writer,  as  it 
begins,  "  My  dear  Leigh,"  and  contains  the  following  para- 
graph :  "  There  is  an  American  paper  on  the  coffee-room  table 
here  called  the  '  Dry  Goods  Reporter  and  Commerce  Gazette.' " 
In  a  previous  paragraph  the  writer  admits  that  he  has  had  a 
pint  of  Madeira  with  his  dinner.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
subtitle  of  the  paper  may  very  easily  have  been  misread  by  those 
genial  spectacles.  As  Mr.  Thackeray  also,  probably  on  account 
of  the  Madeira,  failed  to  date  his  letter,  we  do  not  know  exactly 
how  early  an  issue  of  this  father  of  all  trade  papers  had  found 
its  slow  way  by  sailing  ship  to  the  Glasgow  coffee-room  table. 

The  oldest  file  now  existing  in  the  office  of  the  publication  is 
that  for  1849,  by  which  time  its  title,  which  had  previously  under- 
gone one  or  two  changes,  had  become  "  Dry  Goods  Reporter  andi 
Merchants'  Gazette."  This  file  indicates  a  considerable  degree 
of  prosperity.  It  is,  therefore,  rather  surprising  to  note  how 
slowly  the  idea  of  business  journalism  spread.  In  1856,  in  which 
year  was  published  the  Newspaper  Record,  the  first  list  of 
American  newspapers  to  which  I  have  access,  there  appeared  the 
names  of  but  three  class  journals  and,  of  these,  two  were  in  the 
real  estate  field,  so  that  apparently  in  the  first  ten  years  of  the 
life  of  the  "  Economist,"  the  dry  goods  trade  seems  to  have  re- 
mained the  only  one  to  boast  its  own  special  organ.  In  1856,  the 
"  Iron  Age  "  first  saw  the  light  and  the  examples  thus  set  began 
to  be  followed  in  other  lines.  Up  to  1869,  however,  when  the 
"  American  Newspaper  Directory "  gave  the  names  of  about 
twenty-five  non-religious  class  publications,  of  which  fully  half 


12  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

were  devoted  either  to  insurance  or  real  estate,  the  growth  of  the 
trade  paper  idea  was  still  extremely  slow. 

But  during  the  next  thirty  years,  the  breed  increased  and 
multiplied  at  such  a  rate  that  the  same  directory  for  1899  listed 
nearly  eight  hundred  non-religious  class  journals  having  for  the 
purposes  of  this  paper  many  of  the  characteristics  of  trade  pub- 
lications. To  find  room  for  this  number  it  has  been  necessary 
for  the  enterprising  publishers  to  make  for  themselves  fields  in 
nearly  every  gainful  occupation,  so  that  now  almost  every  dis- 
tinguishable line,  from  the  rolling  mill  and  the  shipyard  to  the 
barber,  the  stamp  collector  and  the  undertaker,  has  one  or  more 
special  organs.  Pretty  nearly  the  whole  ground  being  occupied, 
the  increase  in  number  of  business  papers  is  now  very  gradual. 
The  statistics  for  191 4  seem  to  show  a  net  gain  of  only  twenty- 
five  titles  in  the  last  fifteen  years.  In  future  years,  in  obedience 
to  the  general  tendency  toward  larger  units,  this  number  is  likely 
to  remain  nearly  stationary  if,  indeed,  consolidations  and  the 
natural  mortality  among  weak  publications  do  not  actually  de- 
crease it. 

Of  course,  the  value  and  character  of  business  papers  varies 
ver}^  widely  at  any  given  time.  Moreover  their  value  and  char- 
acter as  a  class  has  varied  greatly  at  different  periods  during  the 
history  of  the  industry.  The  latter  variation  has  been  dis- 
tinctly in  the  direction  of  improvement.  A  generation  ago  when 
I  entered  this  field  of  work,  the  average  trade  paper  occupied  a 
position  which  could  only  by  courtesy  be  termed  important.  Its 
circulation  was  very  moderate,  and  not  always  accurately  stated. 
In  its  editorial  room  the  paste-pot  was  often  mightier  than  the 
pen.  Its  treatment  of  markets  and  other  trade  subjects  was 
both  superficial  and  conventional,  while  the  burning  questions, 
the  really  vital  and  sensitive  spots  in  the  trade,  it  touched  but 
gingerly  or  avoided  entirely  lest  advertising  "  patronage  "  held 
mainly  on  the  tenure  of  personal  favor,  should  be  withdrawn. 
Its  advertising  canvass  was  tinged  with  apology  and  involved  the 
consumption  of  more  shoe  leather  than  brain  tissue.  Its  adver- 
tising rate  was  a  "  movable  feast  "  and  as  the  solicitor,  not  the 
paper,  commanded  the  business,  the  commissions  it  paid  would 
have  been  ruinous  had  the  expenses  of  getting  out  the  publication 
amounted  to  anything  comparable  with  those  of  the  present  day. 
The  advertisements  most  desired  by  the  average  publisher  in 
those  days  when  the  philosophy  of  advertising  was  little  under- 
stood, were  those  which  could  be  electrotyped  and  run  until  the 
copper  was  worn  thin  on  the  block  to  save  the  expense  of  com- 
position, and  this  kind  of  cast-iron  advertising  was  the  kind  most 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  13 

readily  obtained  because  the  advertiser  was  frequently  simply 
yielding  to  importunity  or  acting  on  the  vague  idea  that  he  ought 
to  do  some  advertising  while  not  having  the  faintest  notion  as  to 
how  it  ought  to  be  done.  It  is  high  testimony  to  the  value  of 
advertising  as  well  as  to  the  vitality  of  the  specialized  trade 
paper  idea,  that  even  this  rudimentary  publicity  served  to  bring 
seller  and  buyer  together  to  a  recognized  extent  and  that  the 
papers  themselves  as  a  class,  despite  their  incompleteness,  held  on 
and  grew.  These  remarks  apply  to  the  rank  and  file  without  much 
pretension  to  leadership.  Then  as  now,  there  was  "  room  at  the 
top  "  filled  by  a  few  prominent  and  efficient  business  papers.  On 
the  whole  I  presume  that  the  business  press  of  1870,  like  that  of 
191 5,  was  about  as  good  as  the  respective  industries  catered  to 
would  appreciate  and  support. 

The  actual  contrast  of  the  business  press  at  the  two  epochs 
is,  however,  very  marked.  Whether  regarded  from  the  editorial, 
reportorial  or  mechanical  standpoint,  the  best  practice  of  Ameri- 
can trade  journalism  to-day  outclasses  anything  ever  before 
shown  in  this  country  or  anything  ever  accomplished  in  Europe. 
Our  typical  high-class  trade  paper  to-day,  instead  of  being  com- 
paratively cheaply  edited,  commands,  and  to  hold  its  place  must 
command,  the  best  class  of  brains  and  talent  to  be  found  in  the 
industry  or  business  which  it  represents,  and  it  employs  such 
talent  not  only  for  the  general  editorial  and  statistical  work,  but 
for  handling  and  assisting  to  solve  the  new  and  ever-changmg 
problems  which  confront  its  readers.  Unlike  the  daily,  which  is 
supposed  to  cover  everything  under  the  sun  and  not  necessarily 
to  know  anything  for  sure,  the  successful  business  paper  confines 
itself  mainly  within  the  narrow  limits  of  certain  closely  related 
industries,  but  within  those  limits  it  is  supposed  to  know  pre- 
cisely what  it  is  talking  about.  The  general  or  unspecialized 
paper  is  like  a  charge  of  small  shot  scattering  over  all  creation. 
The  trade  paper  is  more  like  the  rifle  ball,  which,  while  it  can 
strike  but  a  small  spot,  is  supposed  to  go  through  from  side  to 
side.  For  that  reason  the  business  paper  has  got  to  be  edited  by 
people  experienced  and  successful  in  the  trades  addressed,  and  to 
get  such  people  it  has  to  compete  with  the  large  houses  in  its 
clientele,  who  are  always  seeking  the  same  class  of  talent. 
This  one  development,  viz. :  the  increasing  demand  upon  the 
business  paper  on  its  editorial  side,  has  raised  the  cost  of  this 
work  many  fold  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  For 
example,  the  information,  instruction,  suggestion  and  direction 
which  is  given  to  its  subscribers  by  the  editorial  department  of  the 
"  Dry  Goods  Economist,"  cost  that  paper  about  $80,000  a  year, 


14  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

and  I  could  probably  name  half  a  dozen  leading  journals  in  odier 
fields  whose  editorial  expenses  are  comparable  to  these. 

With  such  a  brain  equipment,  a  high-class  business  paper 
can  command  the  attention  and  respect  of  its  limited  and  homo- 
geneous audience  and  can  and  must  talk  to  this  audience,  not 
timidly  and  with  a  mere  desire  to  please,  but  with  authority,  be- 
stowing counsel,  caution  and  criticism  with  fearless  candor.  I 
may  mention  that  when  this  aggressive  and  independent  policy 
began  to  characterize  the  high-class  trade  papers,  the  trades  in- 
volved didn't  know  what  to  make  of  it  and  were  sometimes  in- 
clined to  resent  the  criticisms  offered.  I  remember  that  during 
the  nineties  the  "  Dry  Goods  Economist  "  was  served  with  a  con- 
siderable number  of  libel  suits,  claiming  aggregate  damages  of 
some  $400,000,  none  of  which  suits  arose  out  of  any  expression 
of  spite  or  personal  enmity,  but  all  were  caused  by  the  paper's 
unsparing  criticism  of  business  methods  which  it  considered 
questionable.  I  may  add  that  the  total  damages  assessed  in  all 
these  libel  suits  amounted  to  just  six  cents.  As  the  trades  have 
become  accustomed  to  the  independent  and  even  critical  habit 
of  their  business  papers,  they  have  become  less  inclined  to  resent 
frank  expressions  of  criticism  or  blame  which  a  generation  ago 
might  have  made  them  send  for  their  lawyers. 

The  high-class  modern  trade  paper  is  not  merely  better  edited 
than  it  used  to  be,  it  is  thoroughly  departmented.  Without  enter- 
ing too  much  into  detail,  let  me  sketch  the  general  organization 
of  a  first  class  trade  or  technical  newspaper  ofifice.  Of  the  edi- 
torial end  I  have  already  said  enough  to  indicate  its  character. 

The  advertising  department  is  headed  and  manned  by  the 
brightest  and  best-posted  men  in  the  affairs  of  the  trade  or 
industry  served,  that  can  be  secured.  The  chief  job  of  this  de- 
partment is  no  longer  what  it  used  to  be,  namely,  to  get  the 
contract  for  space.  It  is  to  make  good  on  that  contract  and 
prove  to  the  advertiser  that  there  is  no  more  economical  and 
efficient  method  of  obtaining  distribution  of  his  merchandise  than 
the  business  journal  affords.  To  secure  this  result  the  large 
trade  or  technical  paper  of  to-day  maintains  a  service  staff  of 
men  or  women  or  both,  who  are  not  merely  proficient  in  adver- 
tisement writing,  but  familiar  with  the  merchandise,  methods 
and  personnel  of  the  trade  or  industry  served.  This  Service 
department  often  includes  a  complete  Art  department  to  insure 
the  effective  illustration  of  advertising  embodying  the  indis- 
pensable technical  accuracy  of  drawing. 

The  subscription  department  is  carried  on  with  persistence 
and  energy,  but  not  as  of  old  with  price-cutting  and  irrelevant 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  15 

inducements  of  one  kind  or  anotlier.  Tlie  size  and  costliness  of 
the  big  trade  journal — always  in  excess  of  the  subscription 
price — take  away  all  temptation  from  the  publisher  to  force  its 
circulation  among  persons  or  concerns  who  do  not  need  or  will 
not  make  practical  use  of  it.  This  fact,  together  with  the  gov- 
ernmental exclusion  of  given-away  circulation  from  second-class 
mail,  make  for  the  cleanness  and  hundred-per-centness  of  busi- 
ness paper  circulation. 

A  word  about  trade  journal  circulations  may  not  be  inappro- 
priate in  this  connection.  J\Iany  people  who  know  the  high  repu- 
tation of  some  trade  paper,  who  have  observed  its  imposing  size 
and  noted  the  respect  with  which  its  statements  and  statistics  are 
quoted  are  astonished  to  learn  that  its  edition  compared  with  the 
circulation  figures  given  out  by  some  of  the  dailies  or  magazines, 
is  seemingly  insignificant.  "  What,"  they  say,  "  only  15,000  sub- 
scribers? We  supposed  it  had  150,000  at  least."  Such  people 
overlook  the  fact  that  while  each  copy  of  a  daily  or  magazine  is 
aimed  at  a  single  individual  reading  or  purchasing  capacity,  each 
copy  of  the  trade  paper  is  addressed  to  a  purchasing  capacity  of 
many  hundreds  or  many  thousands.  It  is  a  good  big  trade  which 
can  absorb  15,000  copies  of  its  trade  paper;  a  trade  with  a  buy- 
ing capacity  which  is  almost  incalculable. 

The  typographic  and  general  mechanical  department  speaks 
for  itself  in  such  papers  as  these  examples  of  a  few  leading 
publications  which  I  have  here  this  evening.  The  office  and 
accounting  department  is  that  of  any  large  and  widely  ramified 
business.  There  is  much  to  be  seen  in  a  trade  journal  establish- 
ment, which  would  surprise  as  well  as  interest  the  visitor — and 
such  visitors  are  always  welcome — who  is  not  aware  of  the 
proportions  of  this  branch  of  newspaperdom. 

Some  notion  of  these  proportions  may  be  inferred  from  a 
few  concrete  facts  in  illustration.  There  are  a  number  of  busi- 
ness papers  each  of  which  has  on  its  pay-roll,  entirely  apart 
from  the  printing  and  other  mechanical  staffs,  from  150  to  175 
men  and  women.  One  business  paper  organization  held  a  con- 
vention of  its  own  staffs  a  few  years  ago,  which  gathered  250 
people  from  all  over  the  country,  filled  three  busy  days  with 
consultation,  discussion  and  inspiration,  and  then  scattered  back 
to  work  with  renewed  intelligence  and  enthusiasm.  This  con- 
vention cost  the  stockholders  $10,000,  which  was  considered 
money  well  spent.  Another  such  organization,  one  of  the  great- 
est in  the  world,  has  just  completed  and  occupied  a  new  business 
home  in  New  York  City,  in  a  twelve-story  building,  costing,  with 
its  site,  something  over  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars. 


i6  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

Returning  once  more  to  the  history  of  the  "  Dry  Goods 
Economist,"  in  the  tracing  of  which  I  believe  I  am  giving  a 
typical  example  of  the  best  development  of  business  journalism, 
I  would  divide  this  history  into  three  periods.  The  first  period 
extends  from  1846  to  1852.  In  this  latter  year  its  proprietors, 
becoming  ambitious  to  publish  an  authoritative  financial  journal, 
changed  the  shape  of  the  publication  to  one  modeled  upon  the 
"  London  Economist  "  and  gave  their  paper  a  rebirth  under  the 
sonorous  title  of  "  United  States  Economist  and  Dry  Goods 
Reporter."  This  event  marked  the  beginning  of  the  second 
period  of  this  journal,  a  period  covering  over  thirty  years,  and 
ending  with  the  transfer  of  the  property  to  the  hands  of  the 
present  management.  Quite  a  little  of  retrospective  interest  to 
publishers  might  be  tdld  of  this  first  period,  but  it  would  mostly 
be  shop  talk  and  hardly  appropriate  to  this  occasion.  I  will, 
therefore,  pass  it  by  with  a  brief  characterization.  The  jour- 
nalistic methods  followed  throughout  this  period  corresponded 
roughly  to  those  then  and  since  largely  employed  by  American 
farmers  and  known  as  "  extensive  "  agriculture,  in  contrast  with 
the  "  intensive  "  agriculture  now  gradually  coming  into  use.  The 
''  extensive  "  plan  means  planting  a  large  area  with  little  prepara- 
tion or  cultivation  and  obtaining  a  sparse  crop.  The  "  intensive  " 
^plan  is,  of  course,  the  reverse.  The  paper  with  the  long  name, 
'  while  having  dry  goods  for  its  principal  topic,  purported  also  to 
cover  finance,  commerce,  transportation  and  insurance,  to  which 
Immodest  list,  religion  was  added  later.  Against  the  specialized 
competition  of  the  present  day,  such  a  paper  as  that  would  last 
about  as  long  as  the  proverbial  snowball  in  the  unpleasant  here- 
after. But  in  those  times  the  paper  had  no  real  opposition  and 
it  flourished.  It  was  stanchly  loyal  throughout  the  war  and 
partly  perhaps  for  this  reason,  it  made  during  the  years  that 
followed,  say  from  1865  to  1874,  what  were  then  considered 
exceptional  profits. 

From  this  point  on,  however,  it  began  to  decline.  Times 
changed.  The  paper  did  not  change.  Its  trade,  the  dry 
goods  trade,  growing  by  leaps  and  bounds,  called  for  ex- 
clusive and  more  intelligent  treatment.  The  paper  showed 
no  initiative,  but  remained  stereotyped  in  an  outgrown 
routine.  The  industry,  which  it  should  have  led,  caught  up 
with  it,  passed  it  and  by  1888  had  left  it  far  behind.  This 
was  the  close  of  the  paper's  second  period.  The  third  period, 
which  reaches  to  the  present  time,  began  when  myself  and  asso- 
ciates took  over  what  was  left  of  this  property  and  started  in  to 
rebuild   it  on   an   up-to-date   foundation.      The  task  which   con- 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  17 

fronted  the  new  management  was  no  less  than  that  of  bringing 
about  a  resurrection ;  for  the  bones  were  very  dry  that  were  to 
be  clothed  with  flesh  and  blood  and  to  have  breathed  into  them 
the  breath  of  life.  First  of  all,  intensive  methods  had  to  be  intro- 
duced to  replace  the  scattering  policy  which  had  conducted  the 
old  paper  to  the  verge  of  the  grave.  All  subjects  extraneous  to 
dry  goods  were  stricken  from  its  heading.  The  long  straggling 
title  was  telescoped  into  three  words,  "  Dry  Goods  Economist," 
the  paper  itself,  which  for  years  had  been  the  biggest  broadside 
sheet  printed  in  this  country,  needing  a  good  big  room  to  open 
it  up  in,  was  gradually  reduced  to  the  then  standard  quarto 
size  and  its  mechanical  appearance  worked  up  to  the  average 
good  practice  of  the  day.  Far  more  important,  however,  than 
all  these  external  improvements  were  the  radical  changes  in  edi- 
torial policy  which  took  place  during  the  first  two  years,  and 
which  were  imperatively  necessary  if  the  paper  was  to  catch 
step  again  with  the  trade  which  had  practically  slipped  away 
from  it.  Without  this  change,  indeed,  all  minor  betterments 
would  have  been  in  vain. 

During  the  first  two  periods  the  paper  had  been  conducted 
almost  exclusively  in  the  interest  of  the  wholesale  division  of 
the  trade.  It  looked  to  the  manufacturer,  the  importer,  the 
commission  house  and  the  jobber  for  everything;  for  news,  for 
prices,  for  opinions,  for  subscriptions  and  for  advertising.  The 
retailer  was  known  to  exist  and  that  was  about  all.  Neither  he 
nor  his  interests  were  a  factor  under  the  old  regime.  In  the 
beginning,  this  position  was  the  logical  one  for  such  a  publica- 
tion, for  previous  to  about  1870  the  manufacturer  and  the  im- 
porter domiinated  the  situation.  Whatever  the  manufacturer 
produced,  and  whatever  the  importer  imported,  the  retailer  re- 
ceived meekly  and  did  the  best  he  could  with  them ;  but  im- 
perceptibly the  situation  began  to  change.  The  scepter  of  power 
gradually  passed  from  the  wholesaler  to  the  retailer,  until 
within  a  comparatively  few  years  their  relative  positions  were 
exactly  reversed,  and  what  the  American  retailer  demanded  the 
manufacturers  not  only  of  this  country,  but  all  others,  sedulously 
sought  to  produce.  This  change  in  the  relative  weight  of  the 
wholesaler  and  the  retailer  has  come  to  pass  in  many  trades,  but 
in  none  other  probably  is  it  so  conspicuous  as  in  dry  goods  and 
department  store  merchandise.  This  radical  transformation  the 
old  management  had  failed  to  recognize,  but  it  was  promptly 
forced  upon  the  attention  of  the  new  proprietors  and  the  "  Econ- 
omist "  was  turned  squarely  around  with  its  face  to  the  retail 
merchant. 


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J  k' 


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i8  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

This  alteration  in  the  position  of  trade  forces  is  the  basis  of 
some  of  the  most  important  changes  and  developments  that  have 
taken  place  in  business  journalism.  The  keen  publisher  of  every 
trade  paper,  as  distinguished  from  the  technical  paper,  in  other 
words,  the  paper  whose  topic  is  distribution,  has  discovered  that 
his  most  influential  as  well  as  his  most  numerous  clients  are 
the  ultimate  distributers,  and  he  shapes  his  course  accordingly. 
The  management  of  the  "  Economist "  during  its  third  period 
have  never  lost  sight  of  this  fundamental  fact.  They  were  among 
the  earliest  to  see  in  the  dry  goods  retailer  the  Atlas,  whose 
shoulders  support  the  whole  textile  world  and  in  his  store  the 
Rome  to  which  all  dry  goods  roads  lead.  They,  therefore,  cast 
the  lot  of  the  new  "  Economist "  in  with  the  retailer  and  sought 
to  make  of  it  at  once  his  ally,  his  advocate  and  the  medium  of 
his  expression.  Such,  in  outline,  were  the  means  taken  to  bring 
the  dignified  old  journal,  lagging  quietly  along  in  the  rear  of  the 
dry  goods  procession,  up  into  the  van  once  more  among  the 
leaders  of  the  industry. 

This  is  a  typical  experience  of  high-class  trade  papers.  Of 
the  high-class  technical  papers,  the  experience  is  probably  paral- 
lel. ]\Iany  of  them  have  to  do  with  industries  in  which  the  manu- 
facturer is  his  own  ultimate  distributer.  In  those  cases,  as,  for 
example,  where  the  first  buyer  of  a  machine  is  also  its  consumer, 
it  is  he  to  whom  the  chief  appeal  of  the  paper  must  be  made. 

Time  would  fail  me  to  trace,  in  detail,  the  development  of 
business  editing  since  business  journals  began  to  appear.  Per- 
haps a  single  example  from  our  own  records  will  sufficiently  in- 
dicate the  gulf  which  separates  the  past  and  the  present.  Every 
line  of  the  old  "  Dry  Goods  Reporter  "  was  dignified  and  stately. 
At  the  comparatively  free  and  easy  colloquialism  with  which 
we  now  write  the  paper,  our  revered  predecessors  would  have 
stififened  with  horror,  and  a  lapse  into  slang  would  have  shocked 
them  out  of  all  propriety.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we,  in  this 
year  of  grace,  were  to  indulge  in  the  "  fine  writing  "  which  was 
their  constant  aim  and  study,  I  fear  the  small  boys  of  the  dry 
goods  district  would  be  tempted  to  throw  bricks  at  us  in  the 
street.  Think  on  our  probable  fate  if  w^e  were  to  commence  an 
editorial  on  manufacturing  with  observations  like  these,  which 
are  taken  from  the  earliest  undefaced  issue  of  the  "  Dry  Goods 
Reporter,"  in  1849,  that  we  have  in  our  possession : 

"  Many  think  that  all  which  is  necessary  to  success  in 
this  pursuit  is  an  unfailing  supply  of  water  with  a  fall 
sufficient  to  turn  a  large  wheel  or  a  steam  engine  with  a 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  19 

sufficiency  of  fuel.  Consequently  we  see  the  leaping  rivu- 
lets all  over  the  country  turned  into  artificial  channels 
and  put  to  servile  labor;  or  the  iron  horse  whose  course 
we  so  much  admire  as  he  snorts  and  foams  along  his  nar- 
row track,  sans  most  his  rocking  limbs,  is  '  cabined, 
cribbed,  confined '  to  perform  the  same  drudgery.  Have 
those  who  thus  dash  at  once  into  this  intricate  path,  bent 
upon  producing  something  for  the  world's  use  or  wear, 
any  just  idea  of  the  magnitude  or  real  difficulties  of  the 
undertaking?  The  reckless  course,  the  bitter  disappoint- 
ment of  many  of  them  answer  this  in  the  negative,  and 
we  think  it  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  fully  one-half  of 
those  who  engage  in  this  pursuit  have  either  no  definite 
aim  or  are  totally  unfit  to  accomplish  it." 

This  is  simply  the  1849  method  of  saying  that  many  "  dubs  " 
fail  as  manufacturers. 

Any  kind  of  a  talk  about  newspapers  of  any  kind  which 
ignored  the  subject  of  advertising  would  be  like  the  play  of 
Hamlet  with  the  part  of  the  melancholy  Dane  omitted.  Adver- 
tising is  one  thread  upon  which  all  modern  periodical  publishing 
is  strung.  I  remember  once  being  asked  to  read  a  paper  on 
"  Trade  Journalism  and  its  Relation  to  Advertising "  and  I 
started  in  as  follows :  "  A  trade  journal  and  advertising  are 
every  sort  of  relation  to  each  other,  father  and  child,  husband  and 
wife,  brother,  sister,  grandmother  and  cousin.  I  guess  they 
may  be  said  to  be  connected  by  every  tie  known  to  consanguinity 
or  marriage."  This  was  said  a  good  many  years  ago,  and  I 
stand  by  it  to-day.  The  sam^e  statement  is  true  of  almost  every 
other  branch  of  publishing,  but  perhaps  in  no  other  is  it  so  em- 
phatically true  as  of  business  papers ;  and  this  for  the  reason  that 
in  trade  papers  advertising  is  not  an  extraneous  thing,  separate 
and  apart  from  the  publication  itself,  as  in  the  case  of  the  daily 
or  the  magazine,  but  is  an  integral  part  of  the  paper,  and  neces- 
sary to  obtaining  and  keeping  a  subscription  list.  The  reader 
of  a  daily  or  a  religious  paper  would  hardly  notice  a  scarcity  or 
even  an  entire  lack  of  advertising,  because  he  is  looking  only 
for  what  the  writers  of  the  paper  have  to  say.  But  a  dealer  who 
takes  a  shoe  or  a  drug  or  a  hardware  paper,  for  example,  if  he 
were  to  find  in  it  little  or  no  advertising,  would  infallibly  register 
a  protest  at  once  on  the  ground  that  he  was  failing  to  get  a 
considerable  part  of  the  information  and  instruction  for  which 
he  was  paying. 

In  the  upward  progress  of  the  business  paper  its  advertising 


20  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORU^I 

has  developed  and  strengthened  quite  as  much  as  its  editorial 
work,  and  if  it  has  grown  greatly  in  amount  it  has  grown  even 
more  greatly  as  a  factor  in  business.  I  can  only  indicate  in  the 
briefest  manner  the  general  change  which  has  come  over  trade 
paper  advertising.  In  the  old  days  of  the  "  Dry  Goods  Re- 
porter," before  it  had,  like  Saul  of  Tarsus,  seen  a  great  light 
and  taken  a  new  name  and  a  new  attitude  toward  its  life  work, 
the  advertising  which  it  carried  was  for  the  most  part  as  stilted 
and  as  weak  as  the  editorial  style  of  which  I  have  quoted  a 
sample.  Most  of  the  wholesalers  of  that  old  day  had  no  intelli- 
gent purpose  or  plan  of  publicity,  but  being  pushed  up  to  the 
point  of  advertising  by  external  or  internal  pressure,  proceeded 
at  once  to  what  they  considered  the  only  important  part  of  the 
transaction,  viz.,  to  buy  as  little  space  as  they  could  get  off  for, 
for  the  lowest  possible  price.  This  being  accomplished  it  mat- 
tered little  what  was  put  into  space  so  long  as  staid  dignity  was 
maintained  and  nothing  said  which  a  sharp  buyer  would  be  in- 
terested to  hear.  I  well  remember  an  experience  in  illustration 
of  this  ancient  frame  of  mind  which  I  had  when  soliciting  busi- 
ness down  in  the  dry  goods  district  about  twenty-five  years  ago. 
A  large  and  respected  customer  of  mine  had  a  lot  of  stufif  that 
was  specially  good  value  for  the  price,  just  the  sort  of  thing 
to  attract  buyers  and  help  to  sell  his  regular  merchandise.  He 
also  had  some  space  to  use  on  a  contract  with  us,  and  I  naturally 
pounced  on  this  lot  of  goods  as  just  the  thing  to  make  a  drawing 
advertisement,  but  the  merchant  was  horrified  at  the  idea. 
"  What,"  said  he,  "  put  that  in  the  paper  and  let  everA'body  else 
know  just  what  I've  got?"  He  was  willing  to  put  in  his  busi- 
/  ness  card,  but  insisted  that  he  must  not  reveal  any  secrets  as  to 
what  particular  articles  he  had  on  hand. 

Talleyrand,  I  believe  it  was,  expressed  the  opinion  that  lan- 
guage is  primarily  a  means  of  concealing  thought,  and  so  my 
old  friend  and  other  merchants  of  his  ilk  seemed  to  regard 
advertising  as  mainly  useful  for  a  similar  purpose.  The  re- 
luctance with  which  they  abandoned  the  old-fashioned  reticence 
so  out  of  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  this  age  of  publicity  was 
one  of  the  great  stumbling  blocks  in  the  path  of  progressive  trade 
journals.  For  a  long  time  it  kept  them  at  the  task  of  making 
bricks  without  straw,  of  trying  to  demonstrate  their  usefulness 
and  to  produce  results  with  passive  or  so  called  "  director}^  " 
advertising,  which  served  simply  to  inform  the  seeker  after 
goods  instead  of  with  the  active  aggressive  advertising,  which 
awakens  and  tempts  buyers  and  makes  customers  out  of  casual 
readers.     It  was  really  a  curious  phenomenon,  not  easy  to  ex- 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  21 

plain  in  the  face  of  the  object  lesson  which  even  then  was  freely 
furnished  by  retailers  who,  in  their  advertising,  showed  the 
opposite  policy  and  achieved  their  great  success  through  taking 
the  whole  world  into  their  confidence  in  every  detail  of  their 
business.  Reticence  in  regard  to  anything  that  a  possible  buyer 
might  want  to  know  was  long  ago  discarded  by  the  retailer,  and 
I  cannot  tell  why  it  took  the  wholesaler  so  long  to  see  that  his 
problem  did  not  differ  in  principle.  The  art  of  advertising,  as 
I  apprehend  it,  consists  essentially  in  talking  to  a  hundred  or  a 
hundred  thousand  buyers  with  as  nearly  as  possible  the  same 
force  and  freedom  that  the  advertiser  would  display  in  talking 
to  a  single  buyer  in  his  own  office.  The  reticence  of  the  manu- 
facturer and  wholesaler  was,  however,  gradually  broken  down 
and  with  a  higher  and  more  appreciative  attitude  toward  trade 
paper  advertising  on  their  part,  this  advertising  improved  in  its 
art  and  its  psychology  and  in  its  drawing  power,  until  now  the 
best  advertising  in  the  best  business  papers  is  perhaps  the  best 
advertising  now  done  in  the  world. 

I  have  referred  to  advertising  as  the  cord  on  w^hich  pretty 
much  all  publishing  is  strung  and  that  is  quite  correct.     But  let 
us  change   the   metaphor  and   call   it  one   of   the   two   principal 
foundation  stones  on  which  all  our  periodical  publications  are  , 
built.     The  other  foundation  stone  is  the  second-class  postal  law. 
This  law,  passed  by  Congress  in  1879  and  amended  in  1885,  by    / 
reducing  the  rate  of  postage  on  newspapers  and  periodicals  to  / 
one  cent  per  pound,  gave  to  American  newspaper  publishing  the 
greatest  impulse  which  it  ever  received. 

Note  the  relation  of  these  two  foundation  stones  to  the 
structure  which  rests  upon  them.  Without  the  cheap,  efficient 
and  prompt  distribution  granted  to  papers  by  this  postal  law, 
the  dissemination  of  the  business  press  would  probably  never 
have  reached  its  large  and  influential  proportions.  The  cost  of 
circulation  under  ordinary  postage  rates  or  through  any  other 
agency  than  the  Post  Office,  w'ould  certainly  not  only  have  stunted 
the  size  of  trade  and  technical  newspapers,  but  would  have  made 
it  necessary  to  charge  a  subscription  rate  so  much  higher  as  to 
restrict  the  editions.  Restricted  editions  would  have  been  so 
much  less  attractive  as  advertising  mediums  that  the  amount  of 
advertising  carried  would  have  been  meager  in  comparison  with 
the  volume  which  now  renders  the  trade  and  technical  press  by 
far  the  favorite  means  of  communication  between  the  sources 
of  supply  and  the  ultimate  distributer  or  the  user.  How  well 
these  two,  cheap  postage  and  advertising,  have  cooperated  to  the 
service  and  benefit  of  the  business  community,  who  are  the  sub- 


22  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

scribers,  may  be  seen  from  this  fact :  the  cost  of  business  papers 
to  their  readers  has  not  risen  in  common  with  most  other  com- 
modities, but  has  remained  stationary  or  tended  to  decrease, 
while  the  size,  quality  and  value  of  the  papers  have  steadily 
increased. 

To  illustrate  with  the  example  of  the  "  Dry  Goods  Econ- 
omist," the  price  of  the  paper,  at  its  inception  in  1846,  was  five 
dollars  a  year  and  its  price  in  191 5  is  the  same.  I  do  not  assert 
that  the  paper  was  not  worth  its  price  in  the  beginning,  but  I 
can  safely  say  that  it  is  worth  to  its  reader  now  at  least  ten 
times  as  much  as  it  was  then.  That  this  greatly  enhanced  value 
is  still  obtainable  at  the  same  price  is  due  entirely  to  the  two 
causes  mentioned,  the  cheap  postage  and  the  paid-for  advertising. 
Keen  competition  has  compelled  the  publishers  of  the  business 
newspapers,  and  of  most  other  periodicals  for  that  matter,  to 
pass  along  to  their  subscribers  every  saving  like  that  of  cheap 
postage  which  they  are  able  to  make.  The  American  public  has 
become  educated  to  receiving  its  reading  matter  at  a  cost  which 
does  not  cover  the  mechanical  expense  of  production.  There  is, 
therefore,  a  wide  gap  between  this  cost  and  the  subscription  re- 
ceipts of  almost  every  newspaper  and  the  only  way  in  which 
this  gap  can  be  bridged  is  by  using  receipts  from  advertising. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  advertising  has  not  only  the  func- 
tion of  informing  and  giving  profitable  suggestion  to  subscribers, 
but  of  paying  most  of  the  cost  of  the  continual  and  expensive 
improvements  in  the  paper  itself,  so  that  the  latter  may  be  sold 
to  the  subscriber  at  a  nominal  figure.  This  important  function 
of  advertising  seems  not  to  be  generally  recognized.  I  have  on  a 
good  many  occasions  appeared  before  Congressional  committees 
having  under  consideration  proposals  for  repealing  the  second- 
class  postal  law  and  replacing  it  with  one  imposing  a  rate  of 
postage  which  would  compel  publishers  to  increase  subscription 
prices  largely  or  to  go  out  of  business.  I  have  on  such  occa- 
sions found  an  almost  immovable  conviction  among  Congress- 
men that,  subscribers  having  paid  for  the  cost  of  the  paper,  the 
advertising  carried  is  clear  profit  to  the  publisher,  and  of  such 
dimensions  that  he  ought  willingly  to  pay  double  or  quadruple 
rates  of  postage.  Nor  do  I  think  my  best  efforts  ever  succeeded 
in  conveying  to  the  minds  of  our  Federal  legislators  that  it 
takes  not  only  the  cheap  postage,  but  nearly  all  the  advertising 
income  of  any  liberally  conducted  business  newspaper,  to  provide 
the  business  community  with  their  absolutely  indispensable  news- 
papers at  a  price  within  the  means  of  the  humblest  merchant  or 
mechanic. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  23 

Let  us  now  consider  briefly  the  functions  of  the  trade  and 
technical  newspapers.  I  will  premise  by  saying  that  as  business 
is  adjusted  to-day,  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  were  it  possible  to 
suddenly  wipe  out  the  business  press  of  this  country,  the  progress 
of  our  industry,  commerce,  finance  and  transportation  would  re- 
ceive an  abrupt  check,  which  would  not  be  removed  until  means 
were  found  to  restore  this  essential  factor,  or  to  discover  some 
substitute  for  it.  In  illustration  of  this  vital  connection  between 
the  business  paper  and  the  interests  with  which  it  is  allied,  let 
me  once  more  refer  to  the  position  and  activities  of  the  "  Dry 
Goods  Economist."  For  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  this  paper 
has  been  getting  closer  and  closer  to  its  trade  till  it  has  actually 
become  one  with  it.  The  "  Economist "  to-day  and  for  years 
past  has  not  rested  on  the  dry  goods  trade  or  beside  it;  it  has 
been  welded  into  it,  or  to  state  the  fact  a  little  differently,  the 
blood  of  the  whole  dry  goods  body  courses  through  its  veins. 
This  result  has  been  accomplished  through  persistent  adherence 
to  a  single  idea — that  of  Service. 

Now  servicers  a  short  word,  but  it  stands  for  a  very  com- 
prehensive policy.  Let  me  mention  some  of  its  important  fac- 
tors. The  furnishing  of  information  is,  of  course,  one  of  them ; 
information  carefully  gathered,  weighed  and  explained,  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  merchandise  of  nearly  fifty  dififerent  depart- 
ments. In  service  to  the  subscriber  there  must  also  be  instruc- 
tion for  that  Targe  class  of  merchandisers  who  are  still  in  the 
primary  grades  and  this  instruction  must  be  given  line  upon 
line  and  precept  upon  precept.  How  thoroughly  the  paper  has 
fulfilled  this  condition  of  service  may  be  judged  from  the  freely 
admitted  fact  that  the  "  Dry  Goods  Economist  "  has  done  more 
than  any  other  single  factor  to  raise,  during  the  last  twenty  years, 
the  level  of  mercantile  practice  in  its  trade  throughout  the  coun- 
try to  a  higher  and  more  uniform  level. 

Another  element  of  service  which  is  rather  peculiar  to  the 
"  Dry  Goods  Economist "  is  that  of  prophecy.  In  no  other  trade 
in  the  world  does  the  quickly  shifting  element  of  fashion  play 
so  commercial  a  role  as  in  dry  goods.  The  correct  gauging  of 
the  coming  fashion  changes  and  the  adjustments  of  buying 
thereto  practically  means  the  difference  between  loss  and  profit 
to  almost  every  dry  goods  concern.  The  "  Economist "  has 
here,  therefore,  a  role  somewhat  analogous  to  that  of  the 
Government  weather  bureau.  It  is  obliged  by  the  position  of 
leadership  which  it  has  assumed  to  constantly  maintain  observers 
upon  all  the  fashion  watch-towers  of  the  world,  to  catch  the 
earliest  indication  of  the  probable  trend  of  fashions  for  at  least 


24  LECTURES  IX  THE  FORUM 

one  year  ahead ;  and  it  carries  the  heavy  responsibihty  of  an- 
nouncing discoveries  and  forecasts  which  affect  the  purchase  of 
millions  of  dollars"  worth  of  merchandise  and  aid  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  decisions  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  women  as  to 
their  selection  of  articles  of  dress  for  the  coming  season. 

Another  development  by  this  paper  of  the  function  of  in- 
struction is  the  establishment  of  a  school  for  young  men  in  the 
'^  art  of  window  trimmings  and  the  technique  of  advertising  and 
salesmanship.  The  graduates  of  this  institution,  which  is 
known  as  the  Economist  Training  School,  are  much  in  demand 
and  some  hundreds  of  them  are  occupying  positions  with  good 
concerns  all  over  the  United  States.  Still  another  such  develop- 
ment has  been  the  formation  by  the  paper  of  a  subsidiary'  com- 
pany, which  acts  as  the  intimate  personal  business  counselor  and 
\j  advertising  and  sales  suggestor  to  many  hundreds  of  retail  dry 
goods  concerns  scattered  through  all  the  states  of  the  Union. 

The  last  and  perhaps  the  most  important  function  of  the 
typical  business  newspaper  is  leadership,  which  carries  with  it 
I /the  duty  to  fearlessly  rebuke  abuses, as  well  as  to  point  to  higher 
methods  and  standards.  The  "  Dr\'  Goods  Economist,"  for  ex- 
ample, has  dared  to  step  out  of  and  beyond  the  old  accepted 
activities  of  a  trade  journal  and  to  take  an  active  part  in  the 
business  of  those  who  look  to  it.  It  originates  and  it  advises. 
It  will  tell  a  merchant  how  to  build  or  remodel  his  store  and 
i  how  to  arrange  his  stock  therein.  It  will  even  furnish  him 
working  plans  that  will  enable  him  to  carry  out  the  scheme 
suggested.  It  will  help  him  find  the  leak  or  sickness  in  a  droop- 
ed ing  department  and  offer  him  a  plan  to  remedy  it.  It  will  re- 
^  model  his  accounting  for  him.  It  will  advise  him  for  or  against 
the  introduction  of  a  new  department.  It  will  counsel  him  in 
regard  to  the  management  of  his  insurance  or  in  regard  to 
accepting  or  rejecting  a  form  of  contract.  Directly  or  through 
its  subsidiaries  it  will  help  him  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  his 
local  advertising  and  it  will  do  many  other  things  for  him  here- 
tofore considered  wholly  foreign  to  the  scope  of  a  newspaper. 

How  practical  and  efficient  this  broad  service  is,  is  shown 
by  several  applications  which  the  paper  has  received  from 
ingenuous  merchants  in  distant  localities,  for  a  price  at  which 
the  publisher  would  agree  to  let  each  of  them  be  the  only 
subscriber  to  the  "  Dry  Goods  Economist "  in  his  town  in  order 
that  his  competitors  might  lack  the  advantages  of  its  guidance. 

The  high-class  business  paper  exercises  a  function  of  equal 
importance  towards  its  advertisers.  It  must  and  does,  not  only 
as  a  matter  of  duty  towards  its  customer,  but  also  as  a  matter 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  25 

of  self-protection,  seek  to  educate  its  clients  in  broad  and  effi-^*^ 
cient  methods  of  publicity.    It  must  and  does,  therefore,  do  more 
than  furnish  space  for  the  announcements  of  those  desiring  them. 
It  must  and  does  formulate  and  execute  broad  plans  of  publicity 
for  its  customers,  plans  which  its  intimate  knowledge  of  the  busi-  . 
ness  of  the  individual  customer  and  the  whole  trade  best  fits  it  to  ] 
do ;  and  in  this  work  it  employs  every  tool  or  means  which  it  |   ^ 
knows  to  be  efficient  and  economical  for  the  special  purpose  in 
view,  and  rejects  every  means  and  medium  which  is  wasteful 
or  inappropriate,   even  though  its  use  might  bring  much  more 
profit  to   itself  or  to  some  intermediary. 

These  forms  of  extra  effort  for  the  benefit  of  the  subscriber 
and  the  advertiser  respectively,  constitute  what  is  now  quite 
generally  termed  "  SpeciaL.Seryice  ";  a  term  and  a  practice  which 
so  far  as  the  business  press  is  concerned  was  originated  in  the 
office  of  the  "  Dry  Goods  Economist  "  and  by  its  present  Presi- 
dent. This  closes  my  specific  references  to  that  paper.  I  do  not 
feel  it  necessary  to  apologize  for  the  frequent  occurrence  of  its 
name  and  methods,  but  I  wish  to  explain  once  more  that  this  was 
only  because  that  is  the  paper  I  know  best,  and  because  its 
history  and  character  lend  themselves  well  to  the  purposes  of 
this  talk.  Had  I  equal  familiarity  with  others  of  the  dozen 
peers  of  the  "  Dry  Goods  Economist  "  among  the  business  press, 
I  would  gladly  have  drawn  my  illustration  from  their  experience. 

I  have  now  given  some  facts  pertaining  to  the  origin  and 
history  of  the  business  press  together  with  its  functions  in  rela- 
tion to  its  subscribers  and  its  advertisers.  It  remains  for  me  to 
speak  briefly  of  the  present  status  of  this  splendid  grand  divi- 
sion of  journalism.  Trade  and  technical  newspapers  have 
reached  their  present  position  in  spite  of  obstacles  which  have 
impeded,  but  could  not  prevent  their  growth  toward  their  right- 
ful stature  and  standing.  The  chief  of  these  obstacles — the  one 
which  practically  includes  them  all — has  been  Ignorance.  Now, 
there  are  some  enterprises  in  this  world  which  thrive  on  igno- 
rance. The  less  people  know  about  their  inside  workings  the 
better  for  the  enterprises.  Business  publishing  is  not  in  this  -v, 
class.  For  many  years  one  of  the  chief  labors  of  the  editor  and  ^ 
publisher  in  this  field  has  been  to  make  the  people  who  ought  to 
be  in  close  and  constant  touch  with  them,  understand  the  aims, 
the  methods,  the  equipment  and  the  possibilities  of  the  paper 
under  their  charge.  But  it  has  been  slow  work.  The  should-be 
subscriber  has,  because  uninformed  too  often,  decided  that  $2.00 
or  $3.00  or  $5.00  a  year  was  too  much  to  spend  when,  if  he 
had    realized    the   potential    profit   he    was    rejecting,    he    would 


26  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

readily  have  paid  $50.cx3  rather  than  miss  it.  The  should-be 
advertiser  too  often,  dazzled  perhaps  by  an  ambitious  programme 
of  general  publicity  urged  upon  him,  and  unaware  of  the  special 
knowledge  of  his  peculiar  problems  possessed  by  his  trade  or 
technical  paper,  has  turned  his  back  upon  his  natural,  most 
economical  and  most  efficient  advertising  counselor  and  execu- 
tant. The  large  advertising  agency,  dependent  for  success  upon 
,  heavy  appropriations,  has  too  often,  simply  from  lack  of  informa- 
tion,  ignored  the  trade  or  technical  paper  whose  cooperation 
would  often  save  both  agency  and  client  from  a  disastrous  cam- 
paign. The  Federal  Legislature  has  under  misapprehension 
W  I  attacked  and  harassed  the  business  press  in  its  relations  with 
I  the  Post  Office.  But  happily  the  persistence  of  the  publishers 
and  the  insistence  of  practical  experience  have  made  heavy  in- 
roads upon  this  deadening  ignorance,  and  all  classes  concerned 
are  coming  more  and  more  to  comprehend  and  to  respect  the 
business  newspapers  and  the  service  which  they  render  to  the 
whole  commerce  of  the  nation. 

I  do  not  wish  to  trespass  upon  the  ground  which  will  be 
occupied  by  the  eminent  class  journalists  who  are  scheduled  to 
follow  me  in  this  series  of  lectures,  but  I  feel  justified  in  adding, 
in  conclusion,  something  about  the  future. 

There  are  now,  and  probably  will  always  be,  two  kinds  of 
<ij  f  papers  in  every  business  class,  those  with  actual  independence 
and  those  without  it.  Just  as  there  are  canal  boats  that  drift 
with  the  stream  or  have  to  be  towed,  so  there  are  periodicals 
which  keep  to  the  line  of  least  resistance;  and  just  as  there  are 
steamships  which  have  not  to  rely  on  wind  or  current,  so  there 
are  papers  which  carry  deep  down  in  their  hulls  their  own 
motive  power,  which  when  they  feel  that  the  wind  is  adverse 
or  the  current  going  the  wrong  way,  do  not  hesitate  to  get  up 
steam  and  sail  against  them.  It  is  to  the  latter  class  that  the 
future  belongs.  And  in  my  humble  judgment  they  have  an 
ever-widening  opportunity  before  them.  In  the  first  place  the 
strong  trade  or  technical  paper  stands  firmly  on  the  ground  in 
which  are  the  roads  of  business ;  this  largely  accounts  for  the 
way  in  which  such  papers  are  weathering  the  present  period  of 
depression,  their  loss  of  business  being  but  a  fraction  of  that 
which  has  befallen  most  of  the  large  periodicals  of  general  cir- 
culation. Then,  too,  the  business  paper  fulfills  the  imperative 
modern  demand  for  specialization.  The  more  homogeneous  its 
field  the  more  intense  its  cultivation  and  the  more  secure  its 
possession.  Again  the  business  paper  is  directed  straight  at  the 
pocket,  which  has  been  designated  as  the  business  man's  most 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  27 

sensitive  organ,  the  touching  of  which  always  secures  his  most 
concentrated  attention.  It  is  also  of  the  highest  significance  that 
the  clientele  of  the  business  press  is  made  up  of  the  industrial! 
and  mercantile  bone  and  sinew  of  the  nation,  the  men  of  affairs, 
of  capital  and  enterprise,  of  power  and  standing  in  all  com- 
munities. The  subscribers  of  the  high-class  industrial  com- 
mercial and  financial  papers  are  the  substantial  people,  who  can 
influence  opinion  and  bring  things  to  pass.  This  fact  is  one  ' 
secret  of  the  strength  of  the  business  journals,  but  it  also  sug- 
gests a  responsibility  resting  upon  them,  which  they  are  begin- 
ning to   recognize. 

There  is  probably  nothing  in  the  way  of  current  printed 
matter  which  the  business  man  reads  with  more  attention  or 
more  credence  than  his  chosen  business  paper.  He  feels  it  to 
be  not  only  intelligent  and  accurate  but  non-partisan  and  free 
from  any  secret  influence.  The  earned  confidence  of  such  men 
is  a  talent  intrusted  to  the  business  press.  Should  it  be  kept 
hidden  in  a  napkin  or  should  it  be  used  for  the  good  of  the  M  1 
country?     Should  our  important  business  journals  keep  strictly  - 

within   the  technical   limits   of  their  respective   trade   topics   or  "~; 
should  they  help  toward  the  success   of  desirable  measures  of 
wider  scope  by  their  conservative  presentation  of  relevant  facts 
to  the  very  important  audience  whose  ear  they  hold  ? 

Each  paper  will,  of  course,  answer  this  question  for  itself ; 
but  it  seems  probable  to  me  that  just  as  the  business  paper  in  its 
evolution  has  successively  assumed  new  and  more  important 
functions,  so  its  further  progress  will  lead  it  to  take  its  part,  not 
only  in  developing  trade  and  seeking  to  elevate  business  stand- 
ards and  methods,  but  in  working  to  advance  the  broadest  in- 
terests of  our  countr}'. 


Business  Press  Opportunities 

Second  Lecture  in  the  Forum  in   Industrial  Journalism  at  the 
New  York  University,  Feb.  24,  191 5 

By  E.  A.  SIMMONS 
President,  The  Simmons-Boardman  Publishing  Company. 

Before  discussing  opportunities,  let  us  just  define  the  term, 
"  Business   Press." 

"  Business  Press,"  as  a  collective  noun,  means  those  papers 
which  have  to  do  with  business  life,  as  differentiated  from  pub- 
lications that  deal  with  the  home  and  home  life,  religion,  fiction 
and  other  topics  of  universal  interest.  It  is  a  modern  substitute 
for  "  trade  papers,"  a  term  which,  when  used  broadly,  was 
meant  to  include  not  only  strictly  trade  papers ;  but  also  those 
more  correctly  known  as  "  technical "  and  "  class  "  publications. 
I  do  not  know  the  origin  of  the  new  term ;  but  it  was  undoubtedly 
coined  to  harmonize  the  persistent  rebellion  of  publishers  of  the 
thirty-third  degree  technical  papers  and  "  high-brow "  class 
papers  against  a  forced  association  with  the  mongrel  trade 
papers.  In  any  event,  it  seems  to  have  been  a  happy  solution, 
since  the  lions  and  lambs  are  now  bunking  together  in  a  most 
contented  spirit. 

Business  papers,  therefore,  are  divided  into  three  general  sub- 
divisions— trade,  technical  and  class. 

A  trade  paper  is  one  which  deals  with  common  commodities, 
such  as  dry  goods ;  tea,  coffee  and  spices ;  boots  and  shoes ; 
hardware;  furniture;  and  it  shows  the  wholesaler,  jobber  and 
retailer  how  and  when  to  do  business.  The  trade  paper  is  of  no 
direct  interest  to  the  ultimate  consumer. 

A  technical  paper  is  one  which  deals  with  the  practical  part 
of  a  science,  profession  or  art — electricity;  engineering;  ma- 
chinery; sculpture.  Although  its  contents  are  largely  highly 
technical  and  therefore  of  no  direct  interest  to  the  public,  as 
such,  it  is  a  so-called  "  consumer  medium,"  since  most  of  its 
audience  buy  from  the  manufacturer  direct. 

28 


INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  29 

A  class  paper  is  one  which  deals  with  things  that  interest 
alike  the  manufacturer,  the  retailer  and  the  general  public — for 
example,  pleasure  automobiles  (and  Fords).  In  this  field,  the 
automobile  manufacturer  wants  his  agents,  and  prospective 
agents ;  garage  owners  and  mechanics ;  owners  and  chaulifeurs, 
present  and  future,  to  know  how  his  car  is  built  and  why  it  is 
better  than  some  other  car  of  like  class ;  and  the  same  is  true  of 
the  makers  of  carburetors,  magnetos  and  other  patented  devices 
that  go  on  the  car.  Of  the  business  papers,  the  class  journal 
is  perhaps  hardest  to  handle  editorially,  especially  when  me- 
chanics are  involved.  The  language  is  liable  to  be  higher  than 
the  heads  of  a  lot  of  possible  customers,  thus  making  it  im- 
possible to  get  the  maximum  amount  of  circulation  and  adver- 
tising. 

Now  that  you  are  able  to  dififerentiate  between  the  three 
general  classes  of  business  papers,  I  will  take  you  through  the 
several  departments  necessary  to  make  and  market  those  papers ; 
not,  however,  to  show  you  organization — I  will  leave  that  to  my 
friend  Mr.  John  Clyde  Oswald,  of  the  "  American  Printer," 
who  is  scheduled  to  talk  to  you  on  May  19;  but,  rather,  to  point 
out  the  opportunities  for  livelihood  and  honor  that  lurk  around 
each  and  every  desk  in  the  industry. 

First,  let  us  bear  in  mind  that  all  papers  are  divided  into  two 
departments — business  and  editorial.  With  the  smaller  publica- 
tions, the  division  may  be  only  theoretical ;  but  it  is  nevertheless 
there. 

Generally,  beyond  a  certain  point,  work  in  the  business  de- 
partment is  more  remunerative,  pecuniarily,  than  in  the  editorial 
department.  And  it  is  almost  equally  true  that  temperament, 
which  frequently  determines,  in  early  life,  our  course  of  study 
and  mode  of  living,  is  the  ultimate  unit  which  causes  the  em- 
ployer to  select  one  office  boy  for  the  editorial  department  and 
another  for  the  business  department.  You  seldom  run  across 
a  good  editor  who  would  make  a  good  business  manager;  and 
the  reverse  is  equally  true. 

As  you  who  are  studying  here  are  beyond  the  office  boy 
stage,  I  will  pass  his  desk  and  start  a  little  higher. 

For  the  first  few  steps,  and  in  some  of  the  higher  positions, 
one  who  is  fitted  for  a  given  job  in  the  office  of  a  trade  paper 
would  succeed  as  well  in  a  like  position  with  a  technical  or  a 
class  journal.  For  instance,  take  any  clerical  desk  in  the  circula- 
tion department ;  or  in  the  accounting  room ;  or  the  desk  at 
which  the  advertising  pages  are  dummied.  And  in  the  editorial 
department,  it  requires  only  common  sense  and  alertness  to  read 


30  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

and  clip  exchanges.  In  the  higher  positions,  a  circulation  man- 
ager might  win  fame  with  a  technical  paper  and  then  give  equal 
satisfaction  to  the  publisher  of  some  trade  or  class  paper.  But 
beyond  our  imaginary  line,  especially  in  the  editorial  depart- 
ment, desks  in  the  three  classes  of  papers  are  not  readily  inter- 
changeable. 

Every  paper  of  any  respectable  size  published  weekly,  or 
more  frequently  than  once  a  week,  maintains  a  news  depart- 
ment; and  the  higher  the  caliber  of  the  publication,  the  more 
exacting  is  the  work.  Here,  as  with  the  daily  newspapers,  one 
must  have  a  nose  for  news,  either  natural  or  acquired ;  but  there 
is  a  big  difference  between  the  daily  newspaper  office  and  the 
office  of  a  trade,  technical  or  class  journal  in  the  attention  given 
to  the  news  after  it  has  been  scented.  \Mth  the  former,  time 
and  a  clamoring  public  are  too  often  the  governing  factors ; 
whereas  in  our  offices  accuracy  is  the  first  essential.  Therefore, 
if  you  want  to  climb  up  the  editorial  ladder  through  the  news 
department,  first  learn  to  distinguish  between  news  and  history; 
between  fact  and  gossip.  Then,  if  your  goal  is  a  trade  paper, 
learn  all  you  can  about  commercial  products  and  commercial 
conditions.  If  a  technical  paper,  study  especially  manufactur- 
ing and  transportation.     If  a  class  paper,  include  all  four. 

Beyond  this,  you  must  expand  along  a  given  line  of  endeavor. 
On  a  trade  paper,  and  on  some  class  journals,  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  reach  the  highest  rung  with  no  more  fundamental  train- 
ing than  I  have  outlined;  because  you  would  naturally  acquire, 
as  you  progressed,  more  specific  knowledge  of  the  minute  sub- 
divisions of  commercial  geography.  With  a  technical  paper, 
however,  and  with  class  papers  which  deal  with  engineering  sub- 
jects, you  would  go  only  just  so  far;  and  increased  pay  would 
be  earned  only  through  length  of  service. 

Aside  from  those  at  the  head  of  the  editorial  staff  of  a  few 
large  daily  newspapers,  no  editors  are  more  highly  paid  than 
are  those  connected  with  the  important  technical  journals  of 
this  country.  But  the  schooling  of  tlie  technical  editor  is 
harder;  and  the  first  part  of  the  road  over  which  he  must  travel 
is  as  rough  as  with  either  the  trade  or  class  journal.  Usually, 
he  must  have  graduated  from  some  college  with  an  engineering 
course — mechanical,  civil,  electrical  or  mining.  Sometimes  he 
is  then  put  at  work  in  the  editorial  department  at  twelve  or 
fifteen  dollars  a  week:  but  frequently,  perhaps  more  frequently, 
he  must  serve  an  apprenticeship  at  the  bench ;  or  in  building 
bridges  and  tunnels  or  laying  track;  or  in  getting  out  coal  and 
other  products  of  the  mine.     Thus  equipped,  he  is  much  better 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  31 

fitted  to  discuss,  with  authority,  the  exacting  subjects  with  which 
the  highly  speciaUzed  technical  paper  must  deal ;  and  his  progress 
is  usually  faster,  and  greater,  than  that  of  the  college  man  who 
went  straight  to  a  desk.  Only  in  the  hard  school  of  actual 
experience,  therefore,  is  it  possible  for  some  men  to  fit  them- 
selves for  the  editorial  chair. 

I  might  say,  right  here,  parenthetically,  that  of  the  fourteen 
editors  of  the  "  Railway  Age  Gazette,",  eleven  graduated  from 
nine  different  universities  and  colleges  and  eight  of  them  have 
had  practical  experience  in  railway  work.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  editor-in-chief,  after  graduating  from  high  school,  began  his 
business  career  by  setting  type  for  a  country  newspaper  and  came 
to  us  in  1907,  from  the  Chicago  "  Tribune,"  where  he  was  rail- 
way editor  and  an  editorial  writer.  He  is  the  highest  paid 
technical  paper  editor  in  the  country  and  is  at  the  head  of  the 
largest  editorial  stafif  of  any  one  technical  journal  in  the  world; 
yet  he  knows  little  about  any  branch  of  engineering.  He  de- 
pends upon  his  staff  of  specialists  to  keep  him  out  of  trouble 
on  that  score ;  but  he  does  know  transportation.  His  recent 
books,  "  Current  Railway  Problems  " ;  "  The  American  Trans- 
portation Question " ;  and  "  Government  Ownership  of  Rail- 
ways," are  recognized  as  authoritative.  Incidentally,  he  studied 
law,  after  hours,  and  was  recently  admitted  to  the  Chicago 
bar. 

The  editorial  ladder  is  straight.  That  is,  if  you  start  at  the 
bottom,  the  climb  to  the  top  is  steady;  and,  because  it  is  funnel- 
shaped,  there  is  usually  a  scramble  at  the  base  and  intense 
rivalry  as  the  mass  nears  the  mouth.  Fitness  determines  the 
winner;  and  the  rest  continue  to  march  forward,  either  singly, 
in  pairs,  or  three  or  more  abreast,  according  to  the  size  of  the 
staff.  In  other  words,  in  a  small  organization,  the  column  soon 
narrows  down  to  single  file ;  whereas  with  the  larger  papers, 
especially  those  classed  as  technical,  the  single  file  represents 
specialists,  any  one  of  whom  might  be  editorship  timber;  while 
the  rank  and  file  work  together  in  compound  units,  a  given 
number  to  each  sub-division.  For  instance,  of  the  fourteen 
members  of  the  editorial  staff  of  the  "  Railway  Age  Gazette  " 
with  the  title  of  associate  editor,  or  higher,  there  is  one  editor, 
himself  a  specialist,  as  I  have  already  indicated ;  and  one  ]\Ian- 
aging  Editor  who  was,  prior  to  his  promotion,  chief  mechanical 
department  editor.  The  other  twelve  are  divided  as  follows : 
Finance,  one ;  traffic,  one ;  mechanical  engineering,  three ;  civil 
engineering,  three ;  news  and  miscellaneous,  four.  Of  the  four- 
teen, at  least  six  know  how  to  make  up  the  editorial  pages  of 


32  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

the  paper.  Except  in  the  news  department,  few  of  them  stay 
at  their  desks  for  any  considerable  time  at  a  stretch.  We 
believe  in  the  policy  of  keeping  our  editors  out  in  the  field  where 
they  can  see  things  at  first  hand;  and  in  railway  work  this 
means  that  they  must  travel  from  coast  to  coast.  The  day  has 
long  since  passed  when  the  editors  of  a  high-class  technical 
journal  can  sit  on  their  chairs  and  turn  out  a  paper  that  will 
properly  fill  the  field. 

In  remarking  that  you  had  all  passed  the  office  boy  stage,  I 
naturally  assumed  that  you  had  mastered,  to  a  reasonable  de- 
gree, the  art  of  writing  good  English ;  that  you  had  given  enough 
hours  to  arithmetic  to  get  at  least  part  way  through  the  higher 
mathematics.  These  two  things,  especially  the  former,  are 
basic.  At  any  rate,  whether  or  not  I  was  too  hasty,  try  to  per- 
fect your  writing  by  using,  in  so  far  as  one  can,  good  old 
Anglo-Saxon  words — words  of  one  syllable.  How  much  sweeter 
is  "  build,"  than  "  construct  ";  or  "  manufacture."  And  why  say 
"  donate,"  or  "  tender,"  when  you  mean  "  give  "?  Colonel  Prout, 
the  greatest  technical  paper  editor  of  his  day,  always  carried  in 
his  pocket  a  prayer-book  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church ; 
not  that  he  was  a  churchman,  but  because  he  was  a  constant 
reader  of  the  "  Book  of  Common  Prayer,"  a  model  for  simple 
language. 

Now,  let  us  step  over  into  the  business  department,  where  the 
atmosphere  is  quite  dififerent.  A  good  education,  preferably  that 
equal  to  a  high  school  course,  is  the  first  essential.  Once  started, 
the  progressive  youth  will  lose  no  time  in  finding  the  path 
along  which  he  can  travel  upward  in  the  shortest  possible  time ; 
and  W'ill  then  grasp  every  chance  to  help  himself;  including  at- 
tending night  school  and  university  courses,  and  the  business 
lectures  devoted  to  those  subjects  that  he  knows  he  must  master 
if  he  is  to  get  anywhere. 

The  composite  business  department  of  a  business  paper  is 
divided  into  five  general  parts : 

I — Executive 

2 — Accounting 

3 — Advertising 

4 — Circulation 

5 — General  Clerical  Force 

For  those  papers  that  own  and  operate  printing  plants,  an- 
other division  should  be  added;  and  a  second  addition  should 
be  made  for  those  which  have  a  book  department. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  33 

The  Executive  branch  really  narrows  down  to  one  oppor- 
tunity— the  presidential  chair.  The  other  officers  are  usually 
specialists.  There  may  be  one  vice-president  in  direct  charge  of 
the  advertising  force;  while  another  may  give  all  of  his  time  to 
managing  the  office  and  harmonizing  the  work  of  the  branch 
office  or  offices.  The  secretary  might  be  also  the  senior  adver- 
tising solicitor;  or,  in  a  smaller  organization,  he  might  be  re- 
sponsible for  making  up  the  advertising  pages  of  the  paper, 
hiring  employees  and  supervising  the  office  generally.  The 
treasurership  is  usually  a  hyphenated  office;  and  the  title  is  sel- 
dom more  than  a  convenience  for  signing  checks.  His  reports 
are  usually  written  by  the  president. 

The  one  mark  in  the  Executive  Department  at  which  to 
shoot  is,  therefore,  the  office  of  president.  And  of  the  several 
heads  of  trade,  technical  and  class  papers  with  whom  I  am 
acquainted,  each  and  every  one  began  his  business  life  at  the 
bottom,  although  not  always  as  a  publisher.  I  do  not  know  just 
how  much  any  one  of  them  is  worth,  in  dollars  and  cents ;  but  I 
could  name  four,  each  of  whom  has  nearly,  if  not  quite,  touched 
the  million-dollar  mark. 

I  am  not  a  member  of  that  quartet ;  but  I  have  been  urged 
to  tell  you  how  I  squeezed  through  some  narrow  cracks,  in  the 
hope  that  it  will  give  you  a  picture  that  you  can  keep  before  your 
mental  vision  as  a  ready  reference  when  in  doubt  about  that 
great  word  "  opportunity."  Also,  it  will  show  you  exactly  the 
kind  of  ladder  one  person  used  in  his  climb. 

Nearly  twenty-six  years  ago  I  was  forced  to  leave  public 
school,  just  as  I  been  promoted  to  the  graduating  class,  to  help 
support  my  mother.  The  height  of  my  ambition  had  been  that 
of  a  salesman  in  a  dry  goods  store — probably  because  for  some 
years  I  had  earned  fifty  cents  on  Saturdays  as  a  cash  boy  in  a 
small  store  near  my  home.  At  any  rate,  armed  with  a  letter 
from  my  Sunday  School  teacher  and  one  from  a  kind  old  lady 
friend  of  the  family  who  knew  one  of  the  partners,  I  got  a  job 
at  a  bargain  counter  in  A.  D.  Matthews'  Sons'  department  store, 
in  Brooklyn.  I  worked  from  eight  to  six,  with  a  half-hour  for 
lunch ;  sold  more  goods  in  a  day  than  the  head  salesman  of  the 
department;  and  got  $1.50  a  week — provided  I  passed  the  time 
clerk  before  the  stroke  of  eight.  Some  six  months  later  I  was 
offered  a  job  at  five  dollars  a  week,  at  reading  exchanges  for 
what  is  now  the  "  Railway  Age  Gazette."  As  I  was  then  get- 
ting but  half  that  sum,  I  jumped  at  the  chance;  but  it  is  the 
only  time  in  my  life  that  I  ever  allowed  dollars  and  cents  to 
sway  me  in  my  efforts  to  advance. 


34  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

In  reading  and  clipping  newspapers  I  came  in  direct  touch 
with  the  news  editor,  Robert  W.  Martin — now  a  partner  in  one 
of  the  large  down-town  banking  institutions.  After  some  months 
he  took  me  more  closely  under  his  wing.  First,  I  mailed  out 
clippings  for  confirmation  and  amplification.  Then  I  was  given  a 
chance  to  edit  clippings  that  he  knew  were  right.  Finally,  I  was 
able  to  conduct  certain  columns  without  more  than  suggestive 
interference ;  and  in  doing  that  I  frequently  interviewed  railway 
officers. 

The  man  who  had  offered  me  the  job  was  then  cashier  (he 
is  now  a  minister).  He  convinced  me  that  I  would  make  better 
progress  through  the  business  department;  so  when  I  heard 
that  the  man  in  charge  of  making  up  the  advertising  pages  and 
keeping  the  advertising  accounts  was  about  to  be  fired  because 
he  would  only  do  just  what  he  was  supposed  to  do,  irrespective 
of  the  welfare  of  the  office  as  a  whole,  I  urged  the  cashier  to 
suggest  me  for  the  place.  He  did ;  and  I  accepted.  Later  there 
was  a  vacancy  in  the  advertising  soliciting  force.  I  got  that  and 
trained  a  successor  for  the  advertising  desk.  About  a  year  later 
(in  1892,  less  than  three  years  after  I  had  entered  the  office) 
the  man  in  charge  of  the  Chicago  office  resigned ;  and  I  went 
West  to  fill  the  gap  temporarily.  On  my  return,  some  six 
months  later,  business  got  so  bad  that  I  was  told  that  I  had 
the  alternative  of  looking  for  another  job  or  going  out  on  the 
road  soliciting  subscriptions  on  a  commission  basis.  Believing 
that  my  future  lay  in  that  office,  I  went  after  subscriptions — 
and  made  a  fair  income.  Through  another,  and  unexpected, 
change  in  the  office.  I  went  back  to  the  advertising  desk,  where  I 
stuck  for  some  time.  Later  I  was  again  transferred  to  the 
advertising  staff;  and  as  I  had  found  that  exchange  of  informa- 
tion about  orders  for  cars  and  locomotives  helped  me  to  get 
better  acquainted  with  advertisers  and  prospective  advertisers,  I 
asked  for,  and  got,  exclusive  charge  of  compiling  the  columns  of 
the  paper  devoted  to  that  kind  of  news. 

This  was  in  1894  and  I  was  then  getting  twenty  dollars  a 
week.  I  had  gotten  married  on  twelve  dollars  a  week.  Finding 
twenty  dollars  too  little  for  the  comfort  of  two  ambitious  people. 
I  spent  some  of  my  evenings  writing  for  the  Brooklyn  "  Eagle." 
Electric  street  railways  were  then  new ;  and  the  way  in  which 
escaping  current  was  ruining  city  water-  and  gas-pipes,  gave 
the  people  a  lot  to  talk  about.  I  knew  nothing  about  electricity; 
but  by  combining  my  acquired  talent  for  writing  with  my  knowl- 
edge of  how  to  get  facts,  I  not  only  beat  others  to  it  on  the 
"  Eagle " ;  but  I  also  collected  fair  sums  for  articles  that  were 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  35 

printed  in  the  "  American  Electrician,"  now  a  part  of  the 
"  Electrical  World,"  the  leading  paper  in  the  electrical  field. 
In  other  words,  I  covered  the  market  and  sold  before  the  other 
fellows  realized  what  had  happened.  Because  of  the  showing 
I  had  made,  my  own  employers  gave  me  a  chance  to  make  extra 
pennies  by  writing  articles  on  given  subjects  having  to  do  with 
railway  work.  I  ate  those  up  so  fast  that  they  finally  decided 
that  it  would  be  cheaper  to  increase  my  regular  stipend  and 
remove  my  name  from  the  list  of  paid  contributors. 

My  next  opportunity  came  that  same  yeai,  when  the  owner 
of  the  "  American  Engineer,"  now  one  of  our  own  papers, 
offered  me  forty  dollars  a  week,  with  regular  increases  for  ten 
years,  when  I  was  to  get  a  one-quarter  interest  in  the  property. 
I  submitted  the  proposition  to  the  President  of  the  "  Railroad 
Gazette,"  Mr.  W.  H.  Boardman,  and  asked  him  what  I  should 
do.  He  replied,  "  I  never  give  advice  to  young  men.  But  I'll  tell 
you  one  thing — you  have  in  your  hand  a  club  that  you  could  use 
here  with  good  effect."  I  finally  said  I  would  stay  if  he  would 
sell  me  some  stock  in  the  company;  and  in  due  course  the  Vice- 
President  offered  me  fifty  shares,  at  par,  for  cash.  Although 
I  didn't  have  fifty  dollars  in  the  bank  and  hadn't  the  slightest 
idea  where  I  could  raise  five  thousand,  I  promptly  accepted. 
Then  I  put  on  my  hat  and  went  calling.  The  first  man  I  struck 
was  one  whose  advertising  I  had  solicited.  I  told  him  my  story — 
and  then  waited  several  long  days  for  his  decision.  He  wouldn't 
let  me  have  the  whole  amount;  but  I  was  welcome  to  two  thou- 
sand, if  that  would  be  of  any  use.  Of  course,  I  took  it.  The 
other  three  thousand  I  got  from  another  advertiser. 

That  was  my  first  real  jump;  and  in  making  it  I  got  my  first 
lesson  in  finance.  The  experience  has  stood  me  in  good  stead 
many  times  since. 

Soon  after  becoming  a  stockholder,  I  was  told  that  the 
cashier  had  resigned  and  that  I  could  take  his  place.  I  de- 
clined, because  I  was  afraid  that  I  might  get  stuck  there  for  an 
indefinite  period ;  but  I  asked  for  the  right  of  access  to  the 
books  that  I  might  learn  bookkeeping.  So  I  stuck  to  my  job  of 
soliciting  advertising  and  assisted  the  cashier  whenever  he 
needed  me  and  I  could  afford  the  time.  The  knowledge  I  then 
acquired  has  been  almost  invaluable. 

By  this  time  I  had  a  clear  vision  of  my  goal  and  went 
straight  for  it.  I  made  the  A^ice-President.  who  had  charge  of 
the  advertising,  useless  by  doing  so  much  of  his  work  that  when 
he  was  asked,  just  prior  to  the  1903  annual  meeting,  what  he  did 
with  his  time,  he  replied  that  he  got  down  early  and  opened  the 


36  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

mail.  The  directors  said  "  Pretty  expensive  mail  opening  " — 
and  they  put  me  in  his  place,  at  $6,000  a  year.  In  1908,  when 
the  President  was  in  Europe,  I  got  a  chance  to  buy  out  our 
strongest  competitor.  I  cabled  him  the  substance  of  my  negotia- 
tions and  said  I  could  close  if  he  would  raise  one-half  of  the 
$265,000  involved.  He  agreed;  but  later,  on  learning  that  he 
had  not  succeeded  and  might  have  to  make  certain  sacrifices  to  do 
so,  I  got  busy,  and  was  soon  able  to  wire  him  that  I  had 
financed  the  whole  deal,  largely  through  banks. 

The  last  cycle  began  early  in  191 1,  when  the  President  was 
suddenly  deprived  of  a  part  of  his  faculties.  A  little  more 
than  one  year  after,  I  bought  his  holdings  and  thus  became  the 
owner  of  a  safe  majority.  And  in  doing  that  I  repeated  my 
first  plunge — but  this  time  it  was  $250,000  instead  of  $5,000. 

But  there  is  only  one  presidential  chair  in  each  organiza- 
tion ;  and  sometimes  a  single  executive  organization  means  from 
two  to  six  separate  publications.  So  we  will  leave  that  sub- 
division of  the  business  department  and  take  up  the  next — 
accounting. 

Now,  I  have  not  put  accounting  second  because  of  relative 
importance,  either  as  to  rank  or  opportunity ;  but  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  an  adjunct  of  the  President's  office,  either  direct,  or 
through  the  Treasurer. 

In  the  publishing  office  of  average  size,  the  accounting  de- 
partment is  not  strictly  that,  since  it  includes,  not  only  an  ac- 
countant, but  also  a  cashier  and  a  bookkeeper.  Sometimes  the 
cashier  and  bookkeeper  are  identical ;  and  once  in  a  while  one 
man  holds  down  all  three  jobs.  Frequently  the  President,  or 
the  Treasurer,  will  pass  on  the  division  and  segregation  of 
accounts  and  leave  it  to  a  bookkeeper,  or  to  a  combination  book- 
keeper and  cashier,  to  handle  the  books.  In  any  event,  those 
who  want  to  try  to  rise  through  the  Executive  department  should 
know  both  bookkeeping  and  accounting.  The  average  book- 
keeper has  to  be  told  to  what  accounts  many  items  must  be 
charged  or  credited.  He  is  not  qualified,  as  is  an  accountant, 
to  properly  distribute  income  and  expenses,  because  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  relation  of  those  items  to  the  several  departments 
and  to  the  work  of  the  office  as  a  whole,  is  limited.  In  other 
words,  the  average  bookkeeper  is  comparable  with  the  telegraph 
operator  in  a  busy  office — he  transmits  without  absorbing  much 
of  what  goes  through  his  fingers.  To  those  of  you  who  are 
bookkeepers,  therefore,  I  say,  "Don't  be  'telegraphers'!  Be 
accountants !  " 

The  advertising  department  really  affords  more  opportunities 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  37 

than  any  other  one  branch  of  a  pubHcation  office ;  but  aside  from 
the  desks  at  which  one  is  Hable  to  get  stuck  because  of  the 
natural  limitations  of  the  work  at  hand,  most  of  the  positions 
demand  fundamental  talent. 

Take,  for  example,  an  advertising  solicitor.  He  must  have 
salesmanship  ability — ability  to  understand  what  he  is  to  sell 
and  how  to  talk  about  it  in  a  forceful,  manly  way.  One  who 
is  hopelessly  shy  is  barred;  as  is  one  who  is  over  bold.  To  an 
extent,  salesmen  are  born,  not  made ;  but  this  does  not  mean  that 
there  are  not  among  you  some  who  have  bumps  that  merely 
need  shaping.  For  our  work,  the  salesman  must  have  good 
presence  and  be  naturally  truthful ;  he  must  know  his  paper  and 
the  field  and  the  opportunities  therein  for  those  on  whom  he 
calls ;  and  he  must  know  something  about  the  psychology  of 
advertising — the  more  the  better. 

If  he  believes  he  could  sell  advertising,  the  young  man  should 
try  for  one  of  two  desks  in  the  office — that  of  the  advertising 
clerk,  who  handles  the  details  of  making  up  the  advertising 
pages ;  or  that  of  a  copy-writer.  The  latter  is  preferable,  be- 
cause a  copy-writer  often  personally  submits  his  product  to  the 
advertiser  for  approval ;  and  in  doing  so  frequently,  in  efifect, 
sells  him  his  copy.  Besides,  to  write  acceptable  copy  he  must 
both  learn  much  about  the  article  he  is  to  describe  and  find  the 
essential  selling  points.  Such  an  atmosphere  is  bound  to  con- 
tribute to  the  growth  of  any  dormant  salesmanship  germ. 

A  few  days  ago  one  of  our  young  copy  service  department 
men,  who  had  realized  that  his  desk  was  a  natural  stepping  stone 
to  the  soliciting  department,  left  us  to  go  out  into  the  field  for 
another  technical  paper  because  we  did  not  have  an  immediate 
opening  for  him.  I  quote  as  follows  from  a  letter  in  which  he 
openly  told  fully  about  the  origin  and  progress  of  his  negotia- 
tions with  the  other  paper,  and  hoped  that  we  would  release 
him  without  prejudice.  He  said,  "  I  know  that  you  are  always 
glad  to  see  young  men  make  the  best  of  their  opportunities  and 
that  you  have  much  more  respect  for  those  who  have  normal 
ambitions  than  for  those  who  do  not  exert  their  fullest  powers. 
Since  I  have  been  married  (he  was  married  four  months  ago) 
I  have  come  to  realize  the  limitations  of  my  present  line  of 
work  as  never  before.  While  an  occasional  copy-writer  makes, 
say,  sixty  dollars  a  week,  there  are  a  great  many  advertising 
solicitors  who  make  that  much,  and  more ;  so  that  the  propor- 
tion of  chances  favors  the  latter.  So  if  a  man  feels  that,  under 
proper  conditions,  he  can  sell  space,  he  would  be  unwise  to 
continue  to  write  copy.     I  am  sure  that  this  is  the  best  possible 


38  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

opportunity  that  could  come  to  me  and  the  one  in  which  I  am 
surest  of  success  in  the  soliciting  field.  I  told  ]\Ir.  Blank  that 
under  no  circumstances  would  I  want  to  leave  my  people,  who 
had  been  fair  and  square  in  all  ways,  in  any  but  the  friendliest 
of  feelings;  that  I  could  not  afford  to  do  so,  because  I  knew 
that  most  of  them  had  a  personal  regard  for  me  which  I  would 
not  want  to  lose.  At  the  same  time,  I  told  him  I  thought  this 
regard  was  such  that  they  would  want  me  to  do  the  thing  that 
was  best  for  me  even  if  there  might  be  some  little  inconvenience 
in   appointing  my   successor." 

That  young  man  is  bound  to  succeed ;  and  there  is  nothing 
within  reason  that  any  of  his  superiors  or  co-workers  would  not 
do  to  further  "his  future. 

Aside  from  some  executive  officer ;  or  the  first  or  second 
desk  in  the  editorial  department ;  or  the  office  of  circulation  or 
advertising  manager,  a  good  advertising  solicitor  is  the  best 
paid  man  in  a  publishing  organization.  In  fact,  I  know  of 
several  instances  where  some  of  the  men  in  the  field  get  more 
than  anyone  else  except  the  chief  executive.  Advertising  income 
is  the  ver}'^  life  of  every  properly  edited,  properly  printed  and 
properly  circulated  business  paper;  and  not  only  does  such  a 
publication  need  men  of  the  highest  type  to  solicit  advertising, 
but  the  results  of  their  work  are  so  tangible  that  it  is  easy  to 
define  a  working  basis  profitable  to  all  concerned. 

Now  here  is  a  point  over  which  I  shall  probably  never  stop 
thinking.  Why  have  advertising  salesmen,  as  a  rule,  no  execu- 
tive ability?  Perhaps  for  the  same  reason  that  few  professional 
men — civil  or  mechanical  engineers,  for  instance — know  how  to 
write  for  publication.  But  again  I  am  without  an  explanation. 
In  either  case,  however,  the  calling  is  honorable  and  can  be 
turned  to  profitable  account.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  have  heard 
high-salaried  advertising  solicitors  say  that  the  President  was 
welcome  to  his  job;  and  since  happiness  plays  a  very  important 
part  in  the  success  of  any  organization,  I  suppose  I  should  stop 
speculating  and  let  it  go  at  that. 

I  have  already  pointed  out  the  door  that  leads  from  the  copy 
service  department  to  a  higher  realm;  but  the  opportunities 
within  that  sanctum  are  well  worth  considering,  because  they 
produce  more  than  many  good  clerkships. 

If  you  have  a  real  talent  for  free-hand  drawing,  perfect  that. 
Good  commercial  artists  command  fair  salaries ;  and  the  work 
is  not  monotonous.  Or,  if  you  are  not  enough  of  an  artist  to 
handle  a  fine  brush  and  do  delicate  work,  try  sketching  and  letter- 
ing.     Then   if  you   learn   to   discern   the   selling   points    of    the 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  39 

products  of  advertisers,  you  will  have  made  a  good  copy-writer. 
Even  should  you  get  no  further,  the  job  is  one  well  worth 
holding. 

The  desk  at  which  the  advertisements  are  handled  after  the 
solicitors  and  copy  service  men  have  done  their  work  may  be 
classed  as  a  clerkship.  However,  as  I  said  before,  one  might 
jump  from  there  to  an  advertising  solicitorship — just  as  I  did. 
In  fact,  since  the  man  at  that  desk  comes  in  direct  contact  with 
the  printshop,  he  can,  and  will,  if  he  is  ambitious,  learn  a  lot 
about  the  mechanical  part  of  making  a  publication — an  essential 
if  he  would  be  general  business  manager. 

My  fourth  general  subdivision  of  the  business  department  is 
the  circulation  department.  Or,  perhaps  I  should  call  it  the  cir- 
culation and  subscription  department,  to  be  technically  correct; 
because  the  circulation  end  really  has  to  do  with  getting  sub- 
scriptions while  the  subscription  end  deals  with  the  orders  after 
they  have  been  received. 

The  bull's-eye  of  the  circulation  department  is  Circulation 
Manager.  To  hit  it,  one  must  know  how  to  get  subscriptions, 
have  considerable  initiative,  and  be  able  to  handle  and  route 
traveling  salesmen.  Also,  since  the  subscription  department  is 
usually  under  his  control,  he  must  know,  and  keep  constantly 
posted  on,  modern  office  methods  and  those  mechanical  devices 
that  save  time  and  labor  in  cutting  stencils,  addressing  wrappers 
and  inclosing  papers  for  mailing. 

The  Circulation  Manager  with  a  true  perspective  of  the  re- 
lation between  cost  and  results  is  an  exception ;  although  this 
is  more  true  in  the  general  magazine  field  than  it  is  amongst 
business  papers.  However,  it  is  pronounced  enough  to  be  notice- 
able as  a  generally  common  characteristic.  This  is  probably  true 
because  his  eyes  are  centered  on  the  number  and  class  of  possible 
subscribers — as  they  should  be ;  but  he  should  not  let  his  efforts 
toward  a  steady  upper  curve  blind  him  to  the  hole  he  is  making 
in  net  earnings.  It  is  not  always  possible,  and  sometimes  it  is 
not  desirable,  to  advance  advertising  rates  in  step  with  increases 
in  circulation.  The  coming  generation  of  circulation  managers 
should,  therefore,  know  more  about  costs  and  thus  be  able  to 
better  appreciate  and  control  the  expense  of  any  given  campaign. 

The  Circulation  Manager  is  a  salesman;  and  so  is  the  sub- 
scription solicitor.  One  way  to  strike  the  bull's-eye,  therefore, 
is  to  go  out  and  get  subscriptions.  Naturally,  you  must  have 
the  qualifications  of  a  salesman ;  and  if  you  have  had  a  good 
schooling  and  should  absorb  all  that  is  worth  noting  on  your 
calls  on  subscribers  and  prospective  subscribers,  you  would  soon 


40  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

be  well  qualified  to  join  the  staff  of  advertising  solicitors,  should 
you  prefer  that  to  going  back  into  the  office  and  learning  the 
office  routine.  The  other  way  is  the  reverse — learn  the  office 
end  first  and  then  start  out. 

The  office  work  in  the  business  department  is  interesting  and 
affords  opportunities  for  expansion  into  an  office  manager — an 
important  place  in  a  large  organization.  A  general  business 
course,  supplemented  by  visits  to  business  shows  and  other  places 
where  modern  office  systems  and  appliances  may  be  viewed,  is 
a  desirable  preliminary  for  the  young  man  who  is  trying  to  get 
away  from  an  obscure  desk. 

At  last  we  have  arrived  at  the  great  mass  of  desks — stenog- 
raphers ;  typists ;  telephone  operators ;  those  who  read  and  clip 
the  exchanges ;  general  office  assistants — all  clerks,  without  whom 
no  modern  publisher  could  live.  But  if  there  be  among  you  any 
such,  get  out  from  within  the  noose.  It  is  only  the  average 
man  who  is  content  to  stay  at  one  desk  all  of  his  life.  Don't 
be  an  average  man — that's  easy !  Try  something  harder ;  some- 
thing that  will  develop  that  which  God  gave  to  every  normal 
man — AMBITION !  It  is  the  very  essence  of  a  successful  busi- 
ness life ! 

And  among  other  things,  build  credit.  Get  into  debt,  just 
as  I  did ;  and  then  work  it  off.  There  is  no  greater  incentive 
for  ambition  except,  perhaps,  one's  dear  old  mother,  or  his 
wife  and  kiddies.  Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  an  expense  debt ; 
but,  rather,  a  safe  investment  debt.  It  might  take  the  form  of 
shares  in  your  own  concern,  or  in  a  home  for  your  family.  If 
nothing  of  the  kind — nothing  in  the  success  of  which  you  have 
a  hand — is  possible,  it  would  be  far  better  to  put  your  money  into 
a  savings  bank ;  because  investment  in  securities  about  which 
one  is  not  fully  informed  frequently  leads  to  loss  of  money  or, 
what  is  still  worse,  to  speculation.  No  young  man,  and  few  who 
have  matured,  can  succeed  in  business  with  one  eye  glued  on 
the  stock  ticker.  But  always  try  to  save  at  least  one-third  of 
every  penny  you  get;  and  aim  to  save  three-quarters.  It  is  un- 
fortunately true  of  this  country  that  the  business  age  limit  for 
employees  is  gradually  contracting.  Therefore  be  ready  for  that 
day  when  your  employer  shall  say,  "  Well  done,  thou  good  and 
faithful  servant;  enter  thou  the  ranks  of  the  unemployed." 

Those  of  you  who  have  followed  me  closely  have  noticed  that 
I  have  confined  my  remarks  to  the  masculine  gender — "  that 
form  or  use  of  a  word  which  denotes  the  male  sex,"  as  they 
tell  us  at  school.  I  did  this  with  malice  aforethought;  because 
I  have  a  special  message  for  the  fair  sex. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  41 

The  opportunities  for  women  are  limited  in  the  office  of  a 
publisher,  just  as  they  are  limited  in  public  life.  Even  women's 
magazines  employ  male  advertising  solicitors ;  and  men  sit  in 
judgment  in  designing  the  gowns  that  appear  in  those  magazines. 
But  there  are  lots  of  places  that  women  can,  and  do,  fill  to  the 
credit  of  their  sex ;  and,  speaking  candidly,  male  employers  often 
choose  women  when  there  is  an  alternative,  even  though  they 
often  face  inevitable  loss  through  marriage.  The  reasons  for 
this  partiality  are :  Women  are  naturally  honest ;  more  loyal ; 
neater;  and  are  less  expensive,  because  of  lack  of  responsibility 
for  the  support  of  others.  I  am  speaking  now  of  the  average 
woman  of  the  middle-class — the  only  kind  we  use  for  office 
work.  ]\Iany  have  w'orked  their  way  up  through  the  ranks  until 
they  are  earning  more  than  some  men  with  families.  Ambition, 
and  a  determination  to  keep  at  a  distance  any  lover  who  did  not, 
or  could  not,  earn  more  than  she,  have  almost  always  been  the 
ultimate  factors  in  their  success.  The  maiden  who,  in  her 
early  days  in  the  office,  stops,  looks  and  listens  at  the  sight  of 
a  lad  in  his  teens  who  thinks  he  has  Webster  beaten  "  to  a 
frazzle  "  on  a  definition  of  the  word  "  love,"  will  never  get  any- 
where in  business.  She  should  ever  bear  in  mind  that  his  goal 
may  be  her  goal;  and  that  if  she  keeps  a  level  head  she  may  get 
there  first. 

Perfect  your  education  in  business  essentials.  If  a  stenog- 
rapher or  typist,  don't  stop  there.  Don't  be  a  "  telegrapher,"  in 
the  metaphorical  sense,  as  most  stenographers  and  typists  are. 
Learn  as  much  as  you  can  about  many  of  the  whys  and  where- 
fores of  what  you  take  down  and  transcribe;  and  when  you  see 
an  opening  at  some  other  desk,  ask  for  a  trial.  If  you  have 
given  satisfaction  in  the  past,  the  worst  that  could  happen  would 
be  a  polite  refusal ;  and,  if  the  employer  has  but  a  grain  more 
of  sense  than  God  gave  geese,  he  will  give  you  a  good  reason 
for  that  refusal.  And  you  will  have  gained  much  through  your 
honest  display  of  ambition;  because  you  wall  surely  get  a  chance 
the  minute  your  employer  is  able  to  find  an  opening  for  w^hich 
he  thinks  you  are  suited. 

If  a  telephone  operator,  attend  to  your  knitting.  Don't 
spend  your  time  listening  on  the  wire.  Instead,  if  you  have  any 
appreciable  spare  time,  go  to  your  employer  and  suggest  that 
you  could  read  or  clip  exchanges  between  calls ;  or,  if  he  will 
put  a  typewriter  at  your  desk,  you  will  learn  to  copy  manu- 
scripts ;  fill  out  and  mail  circular  letters ;  or  do  any  like  odd 
jobs.  You  would  thus  eventually  become  a  good  typist  and  have 
learned  a  lot  about  the  routine  of  the  office.    If  all  of  your  time  is 


42  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUAI 

occupied  at  the  board,  talk  after  hours,  or  during  the  noon-hour, 
with  your  fellow  employees  and  see  if  you  can't  pick  a  job  to 
which  to  aspire.  Then  go  to  night  school,  or  attend  a  course  of 
lectures,  and  learn  enough  to  give  you  courage  to  ask  for  a 
chance  to  get  away  from  the  switchboard. 

]\Iost  publishers  employ  women  to  cut  the  stencils  from  which 
wrappers  are  addressed  and  to  keep  the  mailing  department 
records ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  that  part  of  the  circulation  de- 
partment work  which  has  to  do  with  getting  subscriptions.  One 
desk  is  about  as  good  as  another  for  a  start ;  and  there  is  no 
reason  why  a  woman  cannot  become  the  "  right-hand  man  "  of 
the  Circulation  Alanager. 

In  the  accounting  department,  we  usually  prefer  women ;  but 
while  the  pay  is  fair,  the  chances  for  advancement  are  few.  It 
happens  that  in  my  case  the  "  right-hand  man  "  to  the  President 
is  a  young  woman  who  commended  herself  to  me  originally  be- 
cause she  was  a  stenographer,  knew  bookkeeping  and  had  been 
general  office  manager  for  a  smaller  publisher.  Before  going 
to  business  she  had  taken  diplomas,  at  a  business  school,  in  book- 
keeping, and  in  stenography  and  typewriting. 

In  the  advertising  department,  it  is  sometimes  possible  for 
a  woman  to  reach  the  makeup  desk.  The  limit  in  this  instance 
is  the  policy  of  the  publisher  who  compels  that  clerk  to  deal 
direct  with  the  printshop.  The  atmosphere  of  the  composing 
and  press  rooms  is  not  exactly  suited  to  the  finer  senses  of  the 
kind  of  woman  we  would  pick  for  the  advertising  desk  and  some- 
times, in  order  to  get  the  work  through  promptly  and  with  good 
printing  results,  it  is  necessar\^  to  imitate  the  language  of  the  pro- 
verbial sailing-master.  But  even  if  she  does  not  get  as  far  as  the 
makeup  desk,  some  of  the  subordinate  positions  are  fairly  remu- 
nerative and  the  work  is  so  varied  as  to  be  far  from  parrot-like. 

Here  endeth  the  first  lesson.  The  second  and  last  will  sum 
up  in  a  few  words  the  opportunities  of  the  business  press  and 
its  influence  on  the  world's  commerce. 

I  did  not  hear  j\Ir.  Root  talk,  two  weeks  ago,  but  from  a 
friend  who  was  more  fortunate,  I  gather  that  he  told  you  about 
some  of  the  accomplishments  of  what  is  now  the  "  Dry  Goods 
Economist."  And  from  what  he  said,  you  undoubtedly  got  a 
clear  vision  of  the  relation  of  a  trade  paper  to  its  field  and  the 
influence  for  progress  of  which  it  is  capable. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  daily  newspaper  was  all-powerful ; 
and  during  much  of  that  period  the  trade  papers,  as  all  business 
papers  were  then  classified,  were  largely,  but  by  no  means  al- 
together,   jokes — or   they   would    have   been   had    not   many    of 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  43 

their  publishers  lain  awake  nights  wondering  how  big  a  circu- 
lation statement  he  would  have  to  make  the  next  day  in  order 
to  outstrip  his  competitors ;  or  how  many  extra  pages  of  adver- 
tising his  men  would  be  able  to  get  for  the  next  "  special  issue," 
with  its  extra  special  circulation — usually  the  same  as  for  any 
regular  number.  With  the  decline  of  the  dailies  came  the  up- 
lift of  strength  of  magazines  of  national  circulation.  To-day, 
largely  because  some  abused  their  power  while  others  resorted  to 
scandalous  muckraking,  they,  too,  are  waning. 

In  the  meantime,  the  business  papers,  as  a  whole,  have 
cleaned  house.  The  technical  papers  were  the  first  to  see  the 
errors  of  their  ways ;  and  the  trade  papers  have  nobly  followed 
suit.  The  class  papers,  a  more  recent  development,  compare 
favorably  with  the  rest  of  the  trio.  Of  course,  there  are  some 
who  still  refuse  to  read  the  handwriting  on  the  wall ;  but  the  gap 
between  them  and  the  publishers  who  invite  daylight  on  all  their 
dealings  is  fast  getting  wider.  The  day  is  not  far  distant  when 
the  mortality  amongst  the  weak  sisters  will  be  so  great  that  the 
graveyard  will  be  full. 

And  as  the  gap  widens,  the  influence  of  the  business  press 
continues  to  spread.  Soon  there  will  be  little  that  it  cannot  do 
to  shape  the  country's  welfare.  Will  it  hold  its  place,  or  will 
it,  too,  follow  the  curves  of  the  daily  newspapers  and  popular 
magazines  ?  That  is  a  question  for  you  of  the  coming  generation 
of  editors  to  answer. 

While  about  all  of  the  few  staid  old  business  papers  of  many 
years  ago  were  tainted  to  the  extent  that  their  respective  business 
departments  lied  about  circulation  and  extracted  extra  money  for . 
advertising  on  the  least  provocation,  their  editors  were  honest 
and  had  well-defined  policies — all  of  which  was  reflected  in  their 
editorial  columns.  Mr.  Root  gave  you  some  instances  of  how 
his  paper,  a  trade  paper,  helped  in  the  revolution  of  the  w^ays  of 
doing  a  retail  dry  goods  business.  Mr.  McGraw,  who  will  ad- 
dress you  at  your  next  gathering,  could  tell  you  some  interest- 
ing stories  about  the  editorial  accomplishments  of  the  oldest  of 
his  quartette  of  technical  papers ;  while  my  friend  Hill,  scheduled 
to  talk  to  you  on  April  14,  could  do  the  same  in  connection  with 
those  of  his  quintette  of  engineering  papers  that  were  not  either 
born  or  weaned  during  the  last  ten  years.  But  as  the  "  Railway 
Age  Gazette  "  was  born  in  1856  and  is  therefore  fifty-nine  years 
old ;  and  since  its  editorial  history  is  as  high  in  character  as  that 
of  any  publication  in  any  field,  I  will  briefly  outline  a  few  of 
the  things  of  national  importance  for  which  it,  in  whole  or  in 
part,  is  responsible. 


44  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

In  the  early  seventies,  when  some  railways  were  laying  track 
and  putting  the  rails  five  feet  apart  while  others  were  laying 
them  at  a  distance  of  three-feet-six-inches,  the  "  Railway  Age 
Gazette"  (then  the  "Railroad  Gazette")  pointed  out  the 
ultimate  transcontinental  interchanges  of  traffic  and  fought, 
single-handed,  for  a  gage  of  uniform  width.  With  sub- 
stantially every  technical  paper  and  papers  of  general  cir- 
culation against  us,  we  won  with  the  result  that,  except  in 
a  few  isolated  cases,  the  width  from  center  to  center  of  rails 
of  every  steam  railway  in  the  United  States  is  now  four-feet- 
eight-and-one-half  inches — the  compromise  we  finally  enforced. 
Imagine  having  to  go  from  New  York  to  Buffalo  in  one  car  and 
then  being  forced  to  change  to  another,  if  destined  for  any  point 
further  west !  The  alternative  would  have  been  to  have  trans- 
ferred the  car  bodies  to  another  set  of  trucks.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  that  was  actually  done  for  awhile.  This  fight  was  known 
as  "  The  Battle  of  the  Gages." 

Again  in  the  seventies,  when  George  Westinghouse  came  into 
our  office  with  a  model  of  an  air-brake  under  his  arm  and  on 
which  he  had  applied  for  a  patent,  we  saw  the  possibilities,  and 
said  so  editorially.  Even  in  the  nineties  we  were  still  being 
accused  of  holding  stock  in  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Com- 
pany because  we  dared  to  so  openly  advocate  a  patented  device. 
But  we  were  right,  as  even  the  youngest  of  you  here  know ;  and 
that  one  word,  "  right,"  has  always  been  the  guiding  star  of  the 
editors  of  all  of  the  publications  with  which  we  have  ever  been 
concerned.  It  is  the  basis  of  the  so-called  "  Standards  of  Prac- 
tice "  now  fast  being  adopted  by  all  of  the  best  business  papers 
in  the  country. 

And  the  adoption  of  standard  threads  for  bolts  and  nuts  was 
begun,  and  helped  along  by,  one  of  our  editors,  Mr.  M.  N. 
Forney,  who  used  to  say  that  we  had  published  on  that  subject 
"  as  much  as  would  make  a  book  as  big  as  the  New  Testament, 
or  larger." 

Passing  over  the  more  highly  technical  subject  of  "  Rivet 
versus  Pin-Connected  Bridges,"  wherein  we  judicially  developed 
the  truth,  and  moving  over  into  the  eighties,  we  find  that  we  are 
entitled  to  share  the  credit,  with  a  band  of  four  or  five  railway 
officers,  for  the  decision  of  the  steam  railways  to  use  a  standard 
design  of  automatic  coupler  for  cars ;  and  about  the  same  time, 
with  many  able-minded  men  against  us,  we  successfully  fought 
the  widespread  use  of  compound  locomotives.  In  late  years, 
rnany  trials  have  proved  how  squarely  we  had  hit  that  nail  on 
the  head. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  45 

For  fear  of  boring  you,  I  will  pass  to  a  ten-year  fight  (1893 
to  1903)  on  the  selection  of  a  route  for  the  Isthmian  Canal.  It 
will  be  news  to  many  of  you  that  a  company,  backed  by  certain 
politicians,  had  been  formed  to  build  a  canal  across  Nicaragua,  at 
an  estimated  cost  of  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars ;  that  a  plot 
had  been  hatched  to  get  a  bill  through  Congress  guaranteeing 
bonds  to  the  amount  needed  to  dig  the  "  ditch  " — and  it  would 
have  been  a  ditch,  literally;  because  had  the  canal  been  built  ac- 
cording to  the  plans  given  in  the  prospectus,  not  even  one  of 
our  modern  cruisers,  much  less  a  battleship,  could  have  passed 
through.  Before  the  country  (which,  of  course,  means  the  daily 
newspapers)  woke  up  to  what  was  going  on  at  Washington,  we 
discovered  the  "  grab,"  realized  also  the  fatal  engineering  mis- 
take involved,  and  at  once  opened  up  in  our  editorial  columns. 
Just  as  the  final  debate  in  the  Senate  was  drawing  to  a  close, 
we  caused  a  copy  of  one  editorial  to  be  placed  on  the  desk  of  each 
and  every  senator;  and,  before  the  vote  was  taken,  a  member 
from  the  Middle  West,  using  the  editorial  as  his  text,  urged  re- 
consideration. He  won ;  with  the  result  that,  ten  years  later,  and 
after  a  hard  fight,  Panama  was  selected.  On  October  12,  1902, 
when  it  was  clear  that  the  Panama  route  would  be  followed, 
Varilla,  then  chief  engineer  for  the  French  company  that  was  at 
work  on  a  canal  across  Panama,  and  to  which  the  United  States 
Government  finally  paid  forty  millions  of  dollars,  wrote  to 
Colonel  Prout,  then  Editor  of  the  "  Railroad  Gazette,"  as  fol- 
lows :  "  The  '  Railroad  Gazette '  was  the  first  journal  which  raised 
in  America  the  alarm  cry  of  science;  and  who  can  ever  measure 
the  influence  which  that  had  in  the  great  final  result  by  which 
there  was  saved  to  the  United  States  and  to  all  humanity  the  dis- 
aster of  what  would  have  been  the  greatest  technical  error  ever 
committed  ?  "  And  when  the  papers,  which  meant  the  beginning 
of  work,  had  finally  been  signed,  Varilla  sent  us  on  May  12,  1913, 
the  following  cablegram :  "  On  the  day  of  final  victory,  Panama, 
I  remember  gratefully  the  support  given  to  the  cause  of  Truth 
by  your  most  important  technical  paper  and  the  share  you  have 
in  the  triumph." 

And  so  it  goes.  During  the  last  three  years  we  have  done 
much  more  than  any  one  other  agency  to  stop  grafting  in  the 
railway  field;  and  while  at  first  we  were  severely  criticised  in 
some  quarters,  threatened  in  others  and  actually  lost  advertising 
patronage  in  others,  the  men  who  still  condemn  us  can  be  counted 
on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  They,  too,  will  eventually  admit 
that  we  were  right;  and  then  the  verdict  will  be  unanimous — 
as  was  that  of  the  minister  who,  on  hearing  the  dying  man  say 


46  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALIS:\I 

that  he  was  ready  to  go,  rephed,  ''  Thank  God ;  that  makes  it 
unanimous." 

Now,  friends,  what  the  real  editors  of  the  past  have  done, 
those  of  to-day  are  doing  and  those  of  to-morrow  will  do.  The 
business  papers  never  had  the  opportunity  that  is  now  within 
their  grasp,  to  become  industrial  world  powers — any  more  than 
that  this  great  country  of  ours  has  ever  before  had  the  chance 
that  it  now  faces,  to  become  the  great  hub  on  which  the  spokes 
of  the  world's  commerce  will  center  when  the  awful  war  is  over. 
And  if  the  business  department  will  continue  to  make  the 
progress  that  it  is  now  making,  and  fasten  "  Truth  "  to  its  mast- 
head so  firmly  that  nothing  will  ever  dislodge  it,  only  the  final 
bugle  call  will  stop  the  onward  march  of  the  business  press. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  have  you,  as  individuals  concerned 
with  the  future  of  the  properties  that  will  some  day  pass  to  the 
control  of  those  of  you  who  succeed,  take  home  with  you  the 
following :  "  Summed  up,  the  '  inside  stor}' '  of  the  success  of  any 
trade,  technical  or  class  journal  lies  in  the  determination  to  make 
a  paper  that  will  not  follow,  but  will  lead,  the  industr}^  to  which 
it  is  devoted — that  will  be  a  motor,  not  a  trailer;  that  will  show 
men  how  to  build  a  business  and  run  it  economically  and  effi- 
ciently ;  a  paper  where  truth  is  uppermost,  whether  in  editorial 
expression  or  in  advertising  contract.  A  publication  with  these 
qualities,  and  with  a  staff  that  will  keep  the  bushel  basket  away 
from  the  light,  cannot  do  otherwise  than  succeed." 


The  Reasons  for  Trade  and  Technical 

Papers 

Third   Lecture   in   the   Forum   in   Industrial   Journalism  at   the 
New  York  University,  March  lo,  191 5 

By  JA^IES  H.  McGRAW 
President,  The  McGraw  Publishing  Company. 

The  demand  for  trade  and  technical  papers  came  naturally 
with  the  increase  in  commercial  competition  and  specialization. 
With  the  existing  state  of  trade,  industrial  and  professional 
competition  and  specialization,  the  business  press  seems  most 
firmly  established.  Present  tendencies  toward  even  greater  com- 
petition and  more  specialization  in  all  lines  of  human  endeavor 
seem  to  indicate  large  possibilities  for  effective  trade  and  tech- 
nical papers. 

The  developments  which  produced  the  first  demands  for 
specialized  papers  may  be  reviewed  in  a  brief  space : 

A  comparatively  short  while  ago  each  family  raised  all  its 
food,  and  manufactured  most  of  the  clothing,  tools  and  utensils 
it  required.  Specialization  of  work  then  came  gradually.  Small 
factory  looms  replaced  the  old  home  spinning  wheel.  The  power 
loom  was  introduced,  after  it  came  into  use  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  at  a  more  rapid  rate  than  is  usually  appreciated. 
There  thus  arose  a  necessity  to  distribute  the  output  of  the 
factory  farther  and  farther  from  the  source  of  origin.  Gradually 
the  markets  of  the  individual  factories  overlapped  more  and 
more  until  they  became  nearly  or  quite  the  same.  With  this 
change  there  was  brought  about  an  entirely  new  set  of  business 
conditions.  The  problems  of  marketing  became  far  more  com- 
plicated. At  the  same  time,  opportunities  for  creating  business 
grew  immensely. 

In  a  similar  manner  the  local  blacksmith  was  the  first  spe- 
cialist to  produce  the  knives,  hammers,  fire-tongs  and  other 
household  tools  and  utensils.  Within  the  last  century  he  was  re- 
placed by  the  small  factory  specializing  in  the  manufacture  of 
one  or  more  of  such  tools  and  utensils.     Then  there  came  a  de- 

47 


48  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

mand  for  tools  of  better  quality  and  utensils  of  a  much  greater 
variety.  And  so  the  development  has  been  in  all  lines  of  practical 
art  and  industry.  The  railroad,  the  telegraph  and  the  telephone 
increased  the  opportunity  for  specialization  and  expansion;  and 
simultaneously,  the  complication  of  business  methods. 

When  competition  between  factories  and  individuals  working 
along  the  same  special  lines  reached  a  certain  point,  the  demand 
for  perfection  of  product  and  for  further  development  of  per- 
sonal ability  began  to  mount  very  rapidly.  This  demand  gave 
the  first  real  opportunity  for  trade  and  industrial  specialists  and 
for  highly-trained  professional  men.  Now  we  have  specialists 
in  every  line  of  endeavor.  Year  by  year  the  individual,  or  the 
factory,  goes  into  more  and  more  extreme  specialization.  Accom- 
panying this  tendency  is  an  even  more  rapid  increase  in  the  need 
for  business  papers. 

The  manner  in  which  the  demand  for  trade,  industrial  and 
professional  specialists  has  increased  more  rapidly  than  the 
growth  in  the  complexity  of  modern  business  methods  could  be 
illustrated  in  various  ways.  Compare  it  with  the  increase  in  the 
transportation  demands  and  in  the  population  of  our  cities : 

The  horse-car  lines  in  a  city  of  a  million  inhabitants  thirty 
years  ago  carried  a  certain  number  of  passengers.  To-day  the 
urban  transportation  system  of  that  city,  which  now  has  about 
two  and  a  half  times  as  much  population,  carries  nearly  forty 
times  as  many  passengers  as  were  transported  thirty  years  ago. 
In  other  words,  the  number  of  passengers  has  increased  much 
more  rapidly  than  the  rate  of  increase  in  population.  The  de- 
mand for  better  equipment  and  for  greater  speed  also  has  grown 
at  a  comparably  greater  rate  than  has  the  population. 

In  the  same  way,  throughout  trade  and  industry,  there  has 
come  with  the  development  of  modem  business  a  much  more 
rapid  demand  for  specialists  in  all  lines.  Early  in  the  progress 
of  this  development  those  who  were  specialists  in  different  lines 
found  that  they  must  interchange  ideas  and  experiences.  The 
first  reason  for  trade  and  technical  papers  was  then  established. 

The  growth  of  specialization  accelerated  the  need  for  this 
interchange  more  rapidly  than  its  own  rate,  just  as  the  number 
of  local  passengers  in  our  cities  has  increased  more  rapidly  than 
the  rate  at  which  the  population  has  grown.  Experts  in  urban 
transportation  plot  curves,  based  on  past  records,  to  show  the 
future  transportation  demands  that  may  be  expected  in  any  city. 
These  curves  are  always  inclined  upward  more  than  the  slope 
of  the  population  curves.  And  so  it  seems  that  we  may  plot  the 
curves  of  the  demand  for  strong  trade  and  technical  papers  more 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  49 

steeply   than   those    showing   the    rate    of   growth   of   industrial 
specialization. 

Having  outlined  the  tendencies  which  have  produced  the 
specific  demand  for  the  Business  Press,  the  scope  and  function 
of  trade  papers  will  be  considered  only  briefly. 

The  Trade  Paper  Editorially 

Trade  paper  editors  treat  the  manufacture  of  products  chiefly 
from  the  business  point  of  view,  including  only  in  a  general  way 
the  technique  of  production.  In  this  phase  of  their  activities 
they  give  comparatively  little  attention  to  the  details  of  processes 
and  to  the  machinery  involved.  These  features  are  covered  by 
another  class  of  journals,(^as  will  be  discussed  later.  )  Trade 
papers,  in  considering  the  manufacturing  side  of  the  business 
they  represent,  also  devote  attention  editorially  more  to  the  effect 
of  new  methods  of  manufacture  on  the  trade  as  a  whole.  They 
likewise  attempt  to  determine  whether  an  increase  or  decrease 
in  the  supply  of  raw  materials  will  afi^ect  the  methods  of  manu- 
facture ;  how  trade  requirements  will  concern  producers,  and 
other  kindred  subjects. 

Trade  papers  are  equipped  to  collect  such  information  from 
a  variety  of  sources,  and  to  interpret  it  properly  in  light  of  their 
wealth  of  other  information  in  regard  to  the  respective  branch 
of  business  they  represent.  Their  service  in  this  direction  has  a 
broad  and  far-reaching  influence.  Papers  of  established  reputa- 
tion use  such  influence  solely  in  the  interests  of  their  readers. 

The  other  and  more  important  phase  of  the  editorial  eftorts 
of  most  trade  papers  is  the  consideration  of  the  merchandising  of 
products,  including  the  interests  of  the  wholesaler,  the  jobber 
and  the  dealer. 

Men  and  organizations  in  all  three  of  these  branches  of 
mercantile  activity  are  coming  to  understand  almost  universally 
that  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  them  to  keep  closely  informed 
in  regard  to  the  ever-changing  conditions  and  tendencies  which 
affect  their  trade.  Other  things  being  equal,  those  who  are 
best  informed  as  to  such  changes  and  tendencies  enjoy  the  most 
success.  It  is,  however,  manifestly  impossible  for  all  except  a 
very  few  wholesalers,  jobbers  or  dealers  to  judge  from  informa- 
tion they  can  secure  first-hand  anything  more  than  changes  in 
local  conditions.  They  cannot  weigh,  and  rarely  can  sense  in- 
dividually, the  national  and  international  tendencies  and  move- 
ments of  no  moment  to  the  layman  and  consequently  of  no  mo- 
ment to  the  lay  press,  but  which  may  aft'ect  their  affairs  very 


50  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

favorably  or  very  adversely.     They  have  come  to  expect  their 
trade  papers  to  provide  such  information  for  them. 

The  trade  paper,  worthy  of  the  name,  not  merely  senses  the 
far-reaching  tendencies,  but  in  many  cases  has  the  power  to 
create  or  to  direct  such  tendencies.  Its  editors  have  been  trained 
specially  to  bring  together  many  individual  cases  for  generaliza- 
tion and  interpretation.  They  receive  the  negative  and  positive 
factors  of  changes  from  a  multitude  of  sources.  With  these  in 
hand  the  answer  is  plain,  in  the  light  of  their  long  experience  in 
many   similar  situations. 

Presentation  of  methods  of  buying,  selling,  management  and 
other  features  employed  successfully  in  all  sections  of  the  coun- 
try in  the  business  represented,  enables  the  trade  paper  to  give 
its  readers  a  wealth  of  ideas  of  most  practical  value.  Progressive 
trade  papers  are  never  content  to  portray  merely  the  successful 
methods  used  in  their  own  field.  They  are  constantly  searching 
other  fields  for  devices  and  plans  which  can  produce  better  re- 
sults than  those  commonly  used  by  their  clientele.  Such  new 
devices  and  plans  are  regularly  being  introduced  in  all  lines  of 
mercantile  business  by  trade  papers. 

In  a  comparable  manner,  trade  papers  of  the  better  class 
provide  much  inspirational  information  of  general  character, 
which  they  interpret  for  their  readers  to  apply  most  effectively 
to  their  own  fields.  The  work  w'hich  trade  papers  are  doing  in 
this  direction  is  of  immense  value  to  society  as  a  whole. 

The  recording  of  the  news  of  the  field  is  another  important 
function  amply  performed  by  good  trade  papers.  Such  news 
includes  the  prices  of  staples,  notes  on  passing  business  condi- 
tions, personal  mention  of  men  and  concerns  in  the  trade,  and 
descriptions  of  new  materials,  devices  and  products.  This  news 
enables  the  reader  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  immediate  conditions 
in  his  business,  which  are  in  the  aggregate  vital  to  his  success. 

Having  before  you  this  brief  and  general  survey  of  the  edi- 
torial services  rendered  to  its  readers  by  the  trade  paper,  re- 
member that  in  each  case  this  service  is  in  regard  to  a  highly 
specialized  kind  of  merchandising,  such  as  the  hardware,  furni- 
ture, dry  goods,  implement,  drug,  leather,  spice  and  a  score  of 
other  lines  of  business.  The  service  provided  is  of  interest  in 
each  case  to  a  comparatively  small  number  of  individuals.  The 
volume  of  business  controlled  by  each  of  these  groups  is  enor- 
mous however,  and  when  the  many  groups  are  considered  col- 
lectively the  whole  mercantile  fabric  of  the  country  is  covered. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  51 

The  Trade  Paper  and  the  Distribution  of  Goods 

The  potential  power  of  trade  papers  as  factors  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  goods  has  not  yet  been  generally  appreciated.  This  power 
may  be  illustrated  by  a  brief  reference  to  some  of  the  fixed  fac- 
tors involved  in  introducing  a  manufactured  product  for  general 
consumption.  In  such  a  merchandising  campaign  the  ultimate 
consumer  must  be  reached  and  convinced  of  the  value  of  the 
product  to  him.  In  the  past  the  theory  was  to  appeal  directly 
to  the  consumer  only  through  general  magazines  and  other 
similar  media.  The  reasoning  was  that  the  demand  thus  created 
would  force  the  dealer,  the  jobber  and  the  wholesaler, — working 
back  from  the  consumer, — to  carry  the  goods. 

These  fundamental  facts  were  thus  overlooked : 

First,  that  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  consumers  can  be 
sold  thoroughly  even  on  small  articles,  through  the  printed  word 
alone. 

Second,  that  the  word  of  the  dealer  who  is  known  to  the 
consumer  counts  more  than  that  of  the  manufacturer  who  is 
known  only  in  the  beginning  through  his  advertisements. 

The  results  of  such  a  one-sided  appeal  to  the  consumer  only 
have  been  shown  in  the  failure  of  many  a  merchandising  cam- 
paign. In  the  case  of  the  individual  consumer  the  outcome  far 
too  often  has  been  about  as  follows : 

The  manufacturer  conducted  a  national  advertising  campaign 
in  general  media  at  great  expense.  He  thus  created  a  desire  in 
the  mind  of  the  consumer  for  the  product  advertised.  The  con- 
sumer went  to  his  dealer  for  the  product.  The  dealer  had  not 
been  sold.  He  told  the  consumer  he  did  not  know  the  product, 
but  here  was  one  he  did  know.  The  consumer  bought  the  one 
the  dealer  recommended. 

In  describing  what  has  been  a  very  common  incident,  the 
past  tense  should  be  used,  because  such  errors  are  less  rarely 
made  to-day  by  manufacturers.  The  power  of  the  trade  paper 
to  reach  the  distributing  factors  between  the  producer  and  the 
consumer  has  come  to  be  better  understood.  But  there  still 
remains  a  surprising  lack  of  understanding  on  the  part  of  the 
producers  regarding  the  mutual  interests  of  trade  papers  and 
their  readers.  The  authoritative  position  of  the  trade  paper  in 
its  branch  of  merchandising  gives  this  class  of  medium  the  power, 
when  properly  used  by  the  advertiser,  to  enlist  in  a  sales  cam- 
paign all  classes  of  distributors  between  the  producer  and  the 
consumer.  This  position  of  authority  is  being  enhanced  to  such 
extent  by  the  effective  trade  paper  that  it  is  certain  to  receive  an 


52  LECTURES  IX  THE  FORUM 

increasing  proportion  of  the  whole  appropriation  set  aside   for 
giving  publicity  to  products  sold  through  merchandising  channels. 

The  Scope  and  Function  of  Technical  Papers 

Technical  papers  devote  their  editorial  attention  to  matters 
of  specific  and  general  interest  to  men  in  the  professions  and  in 
specialized  industrial  work  as  diflferentiated  from  trade  or  mer- 
chandising. The  professions  so  covered  include  the  law,  medi- 
cine, architecture  and  engineering  in  all  of  its  branches.  The 
industrial  specialists  serv^ed  by  technical  journals  are  engaged  in 
applied  chemistr}%  steam  and  electric  railway  operation,  electrical 
power  generation  and  distribution,  the  manufacture  of  iron  and 
steel,  metallurgy,  contracting  and  many  other  lines  of  endeavor, 
which  require  unusual  knowledge,  training  and  skill. 

In  the  early  histor}'  of  the  professions  their  literature  was 
limited  by  the  information  available  in  regard  to  the  subjects  with 
which  the  respective  profession  was  concerned.  As  the  work  of 
each  profession  developed,  the  amount  of  its  valuable  informa- 
tion increased  until  text-books  appeared.  During  the  last  fifty 
years  progress  has  been  made  in  all  of  the  professions  much  more 
rapidly  than  ever  before.  This  was  due  largely  to  the  progress 
of  the  allied  arts  and  of  industry  as  a  whole.  The  rate  of 
progress  soon  reached  a  point  where  the  text-book  could  convey 
only  the  fundamentals  of  the  knowledge  and  practices  of  the  pro- 
fession. Important  inventions  and  discoveries  were  being  made 
so  fast  that  they  were  historv",  or  might  even  be  superseded  before 
the  text-books  could  be  compiled  to  record  them.  A  similar  sit- 
uation was  occurring  in  all  specialized  industrial  work.  Along 
with  this  development  there  arose  from  professional  men  and 
industrial  specialists  the  demand  for  technical  papers  devoted 
solely  to  their  respective  interests. 

Looking  back  over  the  files  of  technical  papers  it  is  evident 
that  twenty  to  twenty-five  years  ago  those  which  had  the  real 
technical  viewpoint  were  little  more  than  weekly  and  monthly 
text-books.  Their  pages  were  devoted  largely  to  long  and  strictly 
technical  descriptions  and  discussions  which  were  often  carried 
to  the  extreme.  The  pure-science  idea  dominated  their  editorial 
policies.  Gradually,  they  began  to  give  better  attention  to  the 
more  general  features  of  the  professional  and  industrial  life, 
whose  pulse  they  had  helped  to  quicken.  The  technical  papers 
which  continued  to  lead,  printed  a  greater  variety  of  articles  of 
more  practical  character.  Then  came  much  diversification  of 
the  subjects   considered.     In  addition   to  all  of  these  improve- 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  53 

ments,  we  now  have  in  modern  technical  journals  full  considera- 
tion of  the  current  news  of  the  profession  or  industry.  The  really 
progressive  technical  papers  have  thus  always  developed  their 
editorial  policies  so  as  to  be  just  in  advance  of  the  broadening  de- 
mand of  the  field  served. 

Division  of  Text  Pages 

The  text  pages  of  practically  all  modern  technical  journals 
may  be  divided  into  the  editorial,  the  descriptive,  the  general  news 
and  the  current  news  sections.  These  may  be  considered  sep- 
arately, although  two  or  more  of  them  are  closely  allied  in  the 
handling  of  many  subjects. 

The  outstanding  developments  and  news  features  of  the 
profession  or  industry  are  interpreted  and  discussed  in  the  edi- 
torial pages.  A  great  variety  of  subjects  is  considered  in  these 
pages,  even  when  a  technical  paper  covers  quite  a  restricted  field. 
One  editorial  may  have  to  do  with  a  feature  of  general  interest 
to  many  other  branches  of  industry ;  another  may  be  devoted  to 
a  highly  technical  subject  of  immediate  interest  to  a  compara- 
tively small  number  of  its  own  readers,  while  the  next  may  have 
to  do  with  the  ethics  of  the  profession  as  a  whole.  In  some  cases 
the  editor  or  his  advisers  merely  interpret  the  bearing  of  the  sub- 
ject discussed  on  the  affairs  of  the  readers  of  the  paper.  In  other 
instances  there  are  interpretation  and  discussion,  while  many  edi- 
torials contain  strong  and  authoritative  arguments  for  or  against 
certain  practices  or  methods.  Without  exception  the  editorial 
pages  are  devoted  to  the  betterment  of  the  profession  or  industry, 
either  from  a  technical  or  a  financial  point  of  view,  and  frequently 
from  both,  since  the  two  go  hand  in  hand. 

The  descriptive  pages  of  a  technical  journal  contain  articles 
on  an  even  greater  variety  of  subjects  than  are  interpreted  or  dis- 
cussed in  the  editorial  pages.  These  articles  are  written  with  the 
idea  of  giving  in  the  best  form  the  information  of  most  interest 
to  those  concerned.  They  are  prepared  by  members  of  the  edi- 
torial stafif  from  data  obtained  in  the  field,  or  by  men  engaged 
directly  in  the  work  described.  Expressions  of  opinion  are  elimi- 
nated from  the  descriptive  articles  and  reserved  entirely  for  the 
editorial  pages. 

The  descriptions  are  devoted  to  all  phases  of  the  technique 
of  the  field,  including  the  progress  in  allied  arts,  reviews  of  con- 
temporaneous literature  and  text-books.  New  methods  of  apply- 
ing commonly-used  materials  and  equipment,  improvements  in 
old  methods,  results  obtained  in  the  operation  of  plants,  uses  for 


54  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

new  materials  and  equipment  and  plans  of  organization  followed 
successfully  by  those  in  the  field  are  among  the  subjects  set  forth. 

In  recent  years,  technical  papers  of  the  better  class  also  have 
devoted  increasing  attention  to  failures  in  their  fields.  Physical, 
technical  and  financial  failures  of  interest  to  their  readers  have 
been  analyzed  carefully  to  determine,  in  so  far  as  possible,  the 
reasons  for  them.  The  presentation  of  such  analysis  is  always  in 
a  constructive  way.  There  is  no  hesitancy,  however,  to  criticise 
evils  where  they  exist.  The  lessons  of  such  failures  are  thus  put 
before  the  readers  so  that  they  may  avoid  similar  mistakes  in 
their  work. 

Individuals  and  corporations  have  learned  the  constructive 
policies  of  technical  papers  in  such  matters  to  the  extent  that  the 
old  secrecy  regarding  disasters  has  almost  disappeared.  Indeed, 
the  time  is  at  hand  when  many  progressive  organizations  seek  the 
right  kind  of  publicity  of  their  failures.  This  attitude  toward 
the  technical  press  is  enabling  very  great  progress  to  be  made 
rapidly  in  all  lines  of  industry. 

Articles  in  the  descriptive  pages  of  technical  papers  are  now 
very  much  shorter  than  was  formerly  the  rule.  More  pictures 
also  are  being  used.  In  a  word,  the  demand  for  only  the  meat 
of  the  subject,  and  this  presented  in  a  most  concise  and  lucid 
form,  is  being  met  admirably. 

The  general  and  current  news  sections  of  technical  papers 
have  come  to  be  of  great  importance  to  the  readers.  In  these  sec- 
tions consideration  is  given  to  convention  reports,  mention  of 
personal  affairs  and  activities,  unusual  happenings  in  the  field 
covered,  financial  and  corporation  announcements,  new  legisla- 
tion, court  decisions  and  similar  features.  In  journals  devoted 
to  engineering,  the  current  news  also  gives  proposed  purchases  of 
supplies,  materials  and  equipment  and  contemplated  construc- 
tion projects.  A  great  number  of  brief  items,  each  including  the 
location  and  character  of  the  project  and  the  names  of  those  con- 
nected with  it,  are  printed.  These  items  are  secured  from  a 
variety  of  sources  throughout  the  world.  Most  of  them  are  avail- 
able to  the  readers  of  the  paper  through  no  other  medium. 

Review,  now,  for  a  moment  this  outline  of  the  scope  of  the 
technical  paper. 

The  field  covered  presents  a  tremendous  demand  for  the  in- 
terpretation of  tendencies  and  events,  for  all  that  is  new  in  the 
technique  and  methods ;  for  constructive  analysis  of  failures ;  for 
the  news  of  outstanding  events  of  passing  moment  and  of  pro- 
spective work.  The  paper  evidently  must  be  edited  by  specialists. 
It  also  must  be  able  to  secure  the  opinions  and  advice  of  authori- 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  55 

ties  in  its  field.  It  must  have  as  regular  contributors  men  of 
recognized  ability  scattered  throughout  America,  and  one  or  more 
such  men  in  each  of  the  progressive  foreign  countries. 

Each  great  technical  paper  has  such  an  organization,  which 
may  fairly  be  called  its  editorial  staff.  These  men  are  collectively 
able  to  bring  together  under  one  cover  practically  all  that  is  worth 
while  to  the  profession  or  industry  represented  in  the  way  of 
progress  and  news.  The  stafif  is  equipped  by  ability,  training  and 
experience  to  interpret  and  to  discuss  the  outstanding  features  of 
such  progress  and  news.  Consequently,  there  exists  in  each  real 
technical  journal  of  this  country  a  tremendous  power,  which  is 
always  working  for  the  improvement  of  conditions  in  its  field. 
Such  improvement  in  each  profession  or  specialized  branch  of 
industry  means  that  the  condition  of  the  whole  people  is  bettered. 
Technical  papers,  therefore,  serve  the  professions  and  industrial 
specialists  directly,  but  through  them  they  perform  a  far-reaching 
service  for  the  public  at  large. 

The  technical  journal  performs  another  important  function  in 
interpreting  for  the  layman  and  the  lay  press  the  main  movements 
and  the  progress  of  the  profession  or  industry  it  represents.  No 
newspaper  or  general  magazine  can  keep  on  its  staff  experts  in 
all  lines  of  industry.  Readers  of  newspapers  and  magazines, 
however,  are  interested  in  the  general  features  of  industries 
which  make  up  the  commerce  of  the  country.  Such  publications 
which  devote  general  attention  to  financial  matters  and  to  the 
problems  of  public  relations,  have,  therefore,  come  to  look  more 
and  more  to  technical  papers  for  authoritative  information  on 
these  subjects,  and  for  the  viewpoints  of  the  industries  these 
papers  represent.  The  strong  technical  papers  are  enhancing  this 
authoritative  position  by  exercising  extreme  accuracy  in  the  state- 
ments of  general  interest  which  they  publish.  By  thus  properly 
presenting  the  facts  for  the  lay  press,  as  well  as  representing  the 
spirit  of  the  industries  in  their  various  fields,  technical  papers 
perform  a  very  valuable  service  in  enlightening  the  general 
public. 

Men  who  are  real  editors  of  technical  journals  appreciate  the 
power  of  their  papers  for  good  and  for  bad.  They  give  to  their 
editorial  comments  and  to  the  shaping  of  their  editorial  policies 
the  same  careful  consideration  of  all  the  facts  and  conditions 
that  the  judge  gives  to  the  evidence  in  a  case.  By  and  large, 
they  are  dealing  with  bigger  and  more  potential  matters  than  are 
involved  in  the  great  run  of  cases  which  come  to  court.  Technical 
editors  of  large  caliber  and  real  moral  fiber  are  producing  papers 
with  which  it  is  an  honor  to  be  connected. 


56  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

The  Technical  Paper  as  a  Marketing  Factor 

Practically  all  manufactured  products  used  by  the  readers  of 
technical  journals  in  their  specialized  work  are  sold  directly  to 
the  consumer  by  the  producer,  or  his  agent.  The  units  and  quan- 
tities involved  also  are  very  much  larger  than  the  average  sale 
of  merchandise  to  the  consumer.  Furthermore,  each  product, 
or  at  least  each  class  of  products,  required  by  professional  men 
and  industrial  specialists  in  their  work  has  characteristic  and  dis- 
tinctive features.  These  features  may  be  based  on  the  perfec- 
tion of  production,  on  peculiar  adaptation  to  a  certain  class  of 
work,  on  certain  features  of  design  and  on  a  great  variety  of 
other  elements.  In  the  case  of  each  product  such  characteristic 
and  distinctive  features  must  be  conveyed  to  the  prospective  user 
in  a  manner  which  will  carry  conviction. 

The  number  of  the  possible  customers  for  manufacturers  of 
many  kinds  of  products  used  by  professional  men  and  industrial 
specialists  is  in  most  cases  surprisingly  small  to  the  uninitiated. 
For  instance,  there  are  less  than  5,000  industrial  plants  in  this 
country  in  which  a  certain  type  of  mechanical  drj^er  is  required. 
These  plants  are  devoted  to  the  manufacture  of  a  great  variety  of 
products,  such  as  glue,  paint,  fertilizer,  starch,  sugar,  chemicals 
and  the  like.  One  or  more  of  the  processes  in  each  of  these  plants 
are,  however,  very  similar  to  those  in  the  other.  The  same  class 
of  industrial  specialists  direct  these  processes  in  all  of  them. 
This  class  of  specialists  may  be  limited  to  less  than  1,000  in  all. 
This  limited  number  of  specialists  determines  the  type,  and  in 
most  organizations  the  kind  of  dr}'ers  which  are  selected. 

The  purchase  of  specialized  equipment  and  supplies  thus  con- 
trolled in  every  branch  of  industry  by  a  small  number  of  men  is 
tremendous.  These  specialists  who  continue  to  succeed  can 
follow  only  the  dictates  of  their  best  judgment,  based  on  their 
own  experience  and  that  of  their  fellow  workers.  Statistics  show 
that  over  80  per  cent,  of  such  industrial  specialists  read  a  tech- 
nical paper. 

We  therefore  have. 

First,  the  sale  of  products  directly  to  the  consumer  by  the 
manufacturer. 

Second,  a  limited  number  of  individuals  determining  the 
purchases. 

Third,  more  than  80  per  cent,  of  these  individuals  as  readers 
of  technical  papers. 

The  media  through  which  the  message  of  the  manufacturer 
may  be  transmitted  directly  to  the  consumer  with  minimum  waste 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  57 

of  effort  is  therefore  evident.  Indeed,  there  is  no  other  single 
medium  through  which  these  groups  of  potential  buyers  can  be 
reached. 

The  conditions  which  have  just  been  outlined  in  themselves 
render  the  technical  paper  a  very  powerful  advertising  medium. 
There  is  one  other  single  factor,  however,  which  overshadows 
them  all : 

Progressive  readers  appreciate  that  most  of  the  advertising 
space  in  properly  conducted  technical  papers  is  now  occupied  by 
messages  of  immediate  and  practical  value  to  them.  These  mes- 
sages are  brief  and  to  the  point.  The  advertisements  tell  in  terse 
English  and  by  means  of  good  illustrations  what  the  user  ought 
to  know  about  new  tools  and  products,  and  about  new  uses  of  old 
tools  and  products  with  which  he  has  to  execute  his  work.  Aluch 
expense  is  involved  in  securing  the  information  and  illustrations 
on  which  such  advertisements  are  based.  Experience  has  proved 
that  such  expense  is  fully  justified.  Indeed,  the  time  is  at  hand 
when  the  service  rendered  the  reader  through  the  advertising 
pages  ranks  with  that  provided  him  by  the  text  pages  of  the 
technical  paper.  In  the  past  reference  was  made  to  the  reading 
pages  and  the  advertising  pages.  Now  the  division  is  the  text 
and  the  advertising  pages — they  are  all  reading  pages. 

The  Future  Function  of  Trade  and  Technical  Papers 

In  closing,  attention  naturally  is  directed  to  what  function 
trade  and  technical  papers  may  be  expected  to  perform  in  the 
future.  It  is  no  more  possible  to  make  such  a  forecast  than  it  is 
to  say  definitely  what  course  business  and  industry  will  follow. 
Present  conditions  and  tendencies  point,  however,  to  very  great 
possibilities  for  the  business  press.  It  is  offered  a  wonderful 
opportunity  to  conduct  investigations  which  will  determine  the 
character  of  the  separate  and  collective  factors  which  govern 
the  success  or  failure  of  modern  business  organizations. 

Consider  for  a  moment  how  most  business  organizations  have 
grown.  They  have  built  on  the  stream  a  mill  whose  size  de- 
pended on  the  flow  at  the  time.  In  case  that  flow  went  up  or 
down  their  growth  was  expanded  or  curtailed.  Too  often,  no 
study  has  been  made  to  determine  the  normal  flow  of  the  stream 
or  the  fluctuations  which  might  be  expected.  The  methods  fol- 
lowed by  the  engineer  in  determining  the  most  economical  water 
power  development  possible,  and  the  location  of  that  develop- 
ment, rarely  have  been  used  in  advance ;  and  only  in  a  limited 
number  of  cases  after  the  establishment  of  a  business. 


58  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 

Carrying  the  illustration  of  the  water  power  development  a 
little  further:  the  engineer  first  determines  the  watershed  avail- 
able; in  the  case  of  a  business  this  is  the  territory  which  can  be 
reached.  He  consults  the  rainfall  records,  and  calculates  the 
runoff.  Compare  these  to  the  production  of  wealth  in  a  territory 
and  its  theoretical  surplus.  The  engineer  then  studies  such 
stream  flow  records  as  are  available.  These  are  the  same  as  the 
records  of  business  fluctuations.  When  they  cover  a  compara- 
tively short  period  they  are  of  little  value.  One  other  feature 
of  stream  flow  the  engineer  considers  very  thoroughly  is  the  pos- 
sibility and  economy  of  storage  on  the  watershed.  This  factor  is 
too  commonly  overlooked  in  business. 

Having  determined  the  character  of  the  flow  of  the  stream  the 
engineer  investigates  the  sites  available.  Then  he  decides  on  the 
size  of  the  plant  which  can  be  built  according  to  the  fluctuations 
in  demands  for  power  and  the  manner  in  which  the  minimum 
flow  of  the  stream  may  be  regulated  to  meet  these  demands. 

Competition  in  business  has  reached  a  point  where  the  loca- 
tion of  manufacturing  plants  must  be  determined  by  factors 
which  vary  much  the  same  as  the  flow  and  character  of  a  stream. 
The  service  rendered  by  successful  trade  and  technical  papers 
will  continue  to  be  of  greater  importance  in  assisting  in  the 
measurement  and  judgment  of  these  factors. 


The  Special  Service  of  the  Class 
Paper  to  an  Industry 

Fourth  Lecture  in  the   Forum  in  Industrial  Journahsm  at  the 
New  York  University,  March  24,  191 5 

By  H.  M.  SWETLAND 
President,  United  Publishers  Corporation. 

Before  we  discuss  the  special  service  of  the  class  paper  to  an 
industry,  we  will  need  a  better  understanding  of  what  is  in- 
cluded in  the  term  "  class  paper  "  as  distinguished  from  publica- 
tions of  a  general  character.  Naturally,  a  class  paper  is  one 
which  caters  to,  serves  and  is  endorsed  by  a  special  class  of 
readers,  as  distinguished  from  a  publication  designed  to  interest 
and  serve  the  entire  reading  public.  The  "  Ladies'  Home  Jour- 
nal "  may  be  considered,  in  a  general  way,  a  class  paper  as  distin- 
guished from  a  publication  designed  to  interest  both  men  and 
women.  A  religious  paper,  catering  to  a  certain  denomination, 
may  also  be  designated  as  a  class  publication.  So,  also,  may  be 
designated  all  publications  catering  to  the  various  professions, 
and  including,  also,  the  technical  papers  and  the  trade  papers. 
But,  in  the  field  of  what  is  generally  accepted  as  trade  journal- 
ism, which  term  in  its  commercial  sense  includes  all  papers  de- 
voted to  trade  or  craft  or  special  work  in  any  line,  as  well  as  the 
publications  devoted  specially  to  merchandising  a  special  product, 
like  the  "  Dry  Goods  Economist  "  or  "  Hardware  Age,"  the  term 
"  class  papers  "  should  be,  and  is  restricted  to  mean  only  those 
publications  which  cater  to  a  particular  class,  the  formation  of 
which  is  founded  on  some  special  industry.  To  make  the  defini- 
tion more  explicit,  it  is,  perhaps,  best  to  restate  it  in  a  negative 
form  by  saying  that  only  those  papers  which  serve,  directly,  the 
manufacturer,  the  merchant  or  consumer  of  the  product  of  a 
single  industry,  conform  to  the  commercial  definition  of  "  class 
papers."  From  this  it  is  plainly  apparent  that  the  term  "  class  " 
or  "  trade  paper  "  is  improper  in  its  acceptance  by  the  industrial 
and  commercial  world,  and  should  be  substituted  by  a  more  suit- 
able title,  preferably  the  "  Industrial  Press."  In  the  further  con- 
sideration of  the  special  service  of  class  papers,  we  shall,  there- 
fore, confine  ourselves  to  this  definition  of  the  term. 

59 


6o  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

Industrial  publications  must  at  all  times  be  considered  as 
serving  three  separate  and  distinct  functions  of  an  industry,  and 
usually  these  three  functions  are  served  by  separate  and  distinct 
publications,  inaugurated  by  distinct  individuality,  and  usually 
operated  by  separate  and  distinct  ownership.  The  paper  serving 
the  first  of  these  three  functions  is  one  devoted  to  the  interest 
of  the  manufacturer,  and  having  a  circulation  among  the  superin- 
tendents, experts  and  owners  in  one  special  line  of  manufactur- 
ing, and  an  advertising  constituency  among  those  who  supply 
raw  material  or  machinery  to  this  line  of  production. 

The  second  function  of  Industrial  Journalism  has  to  do  with 
the  merchandising  of  the  manufactured  product,  and  has  its 
circulation  among  the  jobbers,  dealers  or  merchants  selling  this 
special  product,  and  an  advertising  constituency  consisting  of 
the  manufacturers  of  this  product. 

The  third  function  of  Industrial  Journalism  is  served  by  a 
publication  devoted  to  the  interest  of  ultimate  consumers  of  the 
product  of  a  special  industr}^,  educating  them  to  a  proper  selec- 
tion of  the  manufactured  product,  and  the  correct  uses  and  serv- 
ice of  this  product. 

These  three  phases  of  Industrial  Journalism  must  be  kept 
well  in  mind,  viz. — the  paper  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the 
manufacturer,  the  merchandising  paper  serving  the  dealer  and 
the  paper  devoted  exclusively  to  the  interests  of  the  consumer. 
At  present,  industrial  publications  sometimes  endeavor  to  serve 
two  or  more  of  these  functions,  but  eventually  each  industr}^  of 
sufficient  importance  and  of  a  sufficiently  distinct  character  to 
require  journalistic  representation,  will  be  served  by  a  publica- 
tion devoted  especially  to  one  and  only  one  of  these  functions. 

Industrial  journals  differ  from  all  other  forms  of  journalistic 
production  in  that  they  are  not  basically  constructed  to  please 
and  entertain  the  reader,  and  thus  create  and  maintain  a  great 
sale  for  a  publication.  Unless  the  publisher  knows  the  journalis- 
tic requirements  of  his  constituency,  and  raises  his  reader  to  the 
level  of  his  publication,  he  should  retire  to  the  ranks  of  yellow 
journalism.  No  doubt,  the  evolutionar}'  process  will  serve  the 
industrial  Press  for  some  time  before  the  rank  and  file  arrive  at 
a  true  conception  of  their  mission.  But.  all  the  great  papers  of 
the  Industrial  Press  to-day  are  conducted  on  this  basic  principle 
of  making  the  paper  which  the  industry  needs,  while  the  number 
who  are  trying  to  please  or  entertain  a  class  of  industrial  readers 
are  growing  continually  less.  Not  that  a  constituent  of  the  In- 
dustrial Press  is  less  susceptible  to  entertainment  or  pleasure 
than  the  average  reader,  but  he  does  not  buy  his  industrial  paper 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  6i 

to  be  entertained.  He  has  subscribed  to  the  pubUcation  with  the 
sole  idea  that  it  will  be  of  service  to  him  in  his  business,  and  he 
reads  it  in  his  thoughtful  moments.  If  he  were  competent  to 
dictate  the  kind  of  a  paper  he  should  have,  the  need  for  the  pub- 
lication would  be  ver)^  much  lessened.  He,  therefore,  leaves  the 
problem  of  making  the  paper  to  the  publisher,  just  as  he  leaves 
the  painting  of  his  pictures  to  an  artist,  and  we  wish  to  disclaim, 
once  and  for  all,  any  successful  policy  on  the  part  of  the  Indus- 
trial Press  of  trying  to  find  out  w^hat  the  industry  wants,  and 
then  pandering  to  the  palate  of  ignorance  or  prejudice.  The  serv- 
ice of  the  Industrial  Press,  for  this  one  basic  principle,  is  of  great 
value  to  an  industry,  just  as  the  text-book  is  of  value  to  the 
student,  and  as  the  picture  designed  and  executed  by  the  artist 
is  superior  to  the  conception  of  the  ordinary  purchaser. 

The  services  of  a  competent  journal,  devoted  exclusively  to 
one  of  the  three  phases  of  an  industry,  may  be  classed  as  general 
and  specific.  The  general  or  indirect  service  probably  exceeds 
the  specific  or  plainly  apparent  benefits,  just  as  the  indirect  re- 
sults from  advertising  exceed  the  direct  returns.  Just  as  the 
subtle  influence  of  a  great  sermon,  a  great  message,  or  a  great 
editorial,  rings  true  and  awakens  sentiment  and  feeling,  which, 
in  turn,  inaugurates  great  reforms,  so  the  promulgation,  discus- 
sion and  reiteration  of  the  great  problems  of  an  industry,  clarify 
and  make  possible  a  more  intelligent  solution  than  can  be  secured 
by  individual  efifort. 

Not  that  the  editor  of  an  industrial  publication  has  supreme 
knowledge  of  all  matters  pertaining  thereto,  or  assumes  to  be 
more  wise  than  the  combined  intelligence  of  his  constituency, 
but  if  he  is  even  moderately  successful  in  fulfilling  the  great 
obligation  of  his  calling,  he  has  command  of,  and  access  to,  more 
sources  of  information  than  the  layman.  An  editor  is  not  ex- 
pected to  know  everything.  He  is  not  a  walking  encyclopedia, 
but  his  work  is  intelligently  indexed  to  the  extent  of  quickly 
availing  himself  of  the  latest  information  from  field  or  labora- 
tory, and  standing  thus  apart  from  active  participation,  with 
a  clear  field  for  prospective  observation,  unbiased  by  contingent  in- 
dividual conditions,  he  is  able  to  reflect  a  consensus  of  intelligent 
opinion,  of  the  greatest  value  and  of  lasting  benefit  to  his  readers. 

Further,  his  imagination,  stimulated  by  his  comprehension  of 
the  conditions  under  his  observation,  will  exert  an  influence  for 
ideal  conditions  and  the  inspiration  thus  created  will  stimulate 
unconsciously  the  development  of  the  industry  as  a  whole,  as 
well  as  its  entire  individual  constituency. 

The  desire  of  industrial  supremacy,  thus  unconsciously  stimu- 


62  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

lated,  may  be  mentioned  as  one  of  the  great  indirect  benefits, 
bequeathed  by  a  publisher  to  an  industry.  If  a  manufacturer 
depends  solely  on  his  ability  to  inspect  personally  the  progress 
being  made  by  all  others  in  his  branch  of  industry,  his  time 
would  be  more  than  spent  in  investigation,  and  his  production 
would  suiter  from  inattention.  The  Industrial  Press  presents 
to  him  the  very  latest  developments  in  every  phase  of  his  indus- 
try ;  presents  many  so-called  improvements  which  his  experience 
readily  discards,  but  this  knowledge  creates  within  him  a  feel- 
ing of  security  that  his  faithful  messenger,  armed  and  equipped 
with  special  facilities  for  securing  the  information  which  he 
desires,  and  an  ability  to  discern  at  once  the  things  which  he 
needs  to  know,  will  keep  him  fully  advised  in  all  lines  of 
progress  worthy  of  his  attention.  Resting  in  this  security,  he 
is  able  to  devote  himself  to  the  stimulation  and  development  of 
his  own  production,  and  this  stimulation  to  industrial  excel- 
lence is  of  untold  value  to  the  producer. 

Some  question  may  arise  that  this  attempt  to  define  and 
specify  the  indirect  benefits  of  the  Industrial  Press  to  its  con- 
stituency is  visionar}^,  overestimated  or  lacking  in  actual  result, 
but  the  fact  is  that  any  attempt  to  portray  that  which  is  indirect 
or  intangible  is  not  only  difificult,  but  falls  short  in  the  adequacy 
of  its  expression,  as  well  as  in  the  summary  of  its  numerous  in- 
definite proportions  in  conveying  a  comprehensive  idea.  We 
will,  therefore,  conclude  our  effort  at  indefinite  enumeration  with 
the  summary  that — 

First, — the  press  indirectly  raises  the  standard  of  the  pro- 
duction of  its  industry  by  stimulating  industrial  supremacy ; 

Second, — it  raises  the  standard  of  ethics  in  the  merchandising 
of  the  products  of  the  industr}^,  facilitating  the  disposition  of  its 
product  through  tried  and  well-recognized  business   principles ; 

Third, — it  benefits  the  consumer  of  the  product  of  an  indus- 
try, as  well  as  the  manufacturer,  by  educating  the  user  to  a 
consistent,  intelligent  and  rational  use  of  the  product,  thereby 
tending  to  mutual  satisfaction  as  between  manufacturer,  mer- 
chant and  consumer. 

The  direct  benefits  of  an  industrial  paper  to  its  special 
industry  may  be  classed  as  educational,  or  informative  and  com- 
mercial. The  educational  benefits  may  be  classed  as  specific,  ex- 
haustive, timely,  accurate ;  specific  from  the  fact  that  the  publi- 
cation is  devoted  exclusively  to  one  particular  industry,  and  one 
only.  Remember,  we  are  living  in  an  age  of  refined  individual 
application,  each  person  in  the  world  to-day,  if  any  great  suc- 
cess is  to  be  secured,  must  specialize  on  one  particular  subject. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  63 

The  progress  of  the  world  is  founded  on  this  fact,  and  the 
assistance  of  a  publication  devoted  specially  and  exclusively  to 
one  division  of  industry,  enables  the  expert  to  concentrate  his 
ability,  thereby  reaping  the  highest  efficiency  from  his  endeavor. 

Exhaustive,  from  the  fact  that  the  progressive  editor  in  In- 
dustrial Journalism  knows  that  his  constituency  are  well  in- 
formed on  all  the  generalities  of  their  callings.  In  many  cases 
his  readers  are  equipped  for  exhaustive  laboratory  experiment 
and  research,  even  beyond  the  resources  at  his  own  command. 
The  successful  industrial  editor  must,  therefore,  be  able  to 
utilize  to  the  fullest  extent  all  research  made  by  the  numerous 
persons  engaged  in  special  work  in  his  field,  and  his  paper  must 
reflect  not  only  what  he  himself  has  developed,  but  must  contain 
the  result  of  all  experiment,  all  research,  all  information  in  this 
particular  field.  Here,  he  must  be  able  to  distinguish  between 
actual  and  well-developed  investigation,  and  the  bombastic  in- 
trusion of  an  unsubstantiated  theory.  A  multitude  of  new  ideas, 
new  processes  and  revolutionary  principles  find  their  way  daily 
into  the  waste  basket  of  the  managing  editor.  But,  even  if  in  an  un- 
guarded moment  some  spectacular  fallacy  gains  the  ear  of  his  audi- 
ence through  his  columns,  you  may  rest  assured  that  some  well-in- 
formed critic,  who  has  made  careful  investigation  in  this  line,  will 
puncture  the  bubble  and  leave  his  readers  finally  with  the  facts. 

Then,  this  information  must  be  timely,  the  topic  of  most  in- 
terest at  the  particular  moment  must  be  observed  from  day  to 
day  in  its  development.  But  for  the  timely  value  of  the  informa- 
tion furnished  by  the  Industrial  Press,  the  text-book  would  take 
its  place.  But  the  text-book  written  to-day  is  likely  to  become 
obsolete  to-morrow,  and  into  this  breach  in  the  demand  for 
specialized  knowledge  the  Industrial  Press  arrives  at  periodical 
intervals,  filling  up  the  gap  between  what  is  well-known,  and 
what  constitutes  the  foundation  principles  of  a  business,  and 
what  is  needed  to  be  known  from  day  to  day  in  its  development. 
The  Industrial  Press  is  the  sentry  which  in  times  of  inactivity 
sounds  the  welcome  note  that  all  is  well,  and  continually  watch- 
guards  for  any  development  which  will  be  of  service. 

In  the  matter  of  accuracy,  the  Industrial  Press  establishes  a 
monument  of  progress  not  at  present  attempted  in  its  contem- 
porary fields  of  journalism.  The  industrial  writer  early  learns 
that  it  is  copy  he  is  expected  to  produce,  and  not  a  story.  His 
facts  may  be  blunt  and  lacking  the  polish  of  elaborate  expres- 
sion, but  if  they  are  facts  and  prove  some  new  developments,  he 
may  rest  assured  they  will  be  accepted  by  his  superior.  It  is 
plain  enough  to  see  why  the  daily  press,   catering  to  and  en- 


64  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

deavoring  to  serve  the  whole  field  on  general  and  specific  infor- 
mation, forms  the  habit  of  inaccuracy.  When  the  daily  press 
attempts  to  handle  an  industrial  topic,  it  fails  with  the  same 
degree  of  inefficiency  that  would  mark  the  efl:orts  of  the  expert 
in  electricity  in  the  practice  of  medicine.  The  editor  of  the  daily 
press  attempts  too  much ;  he  should  leave  the  industrial  matter 
to  the  industrial  press  just  as  the  electrical  expert  employs  a 
physician  when  he  is  ill.  No  attempt  is  here  made  to  belittle 
the  great  educational  value  to  humanity  of  the  daily  press,  and 
whatever  may  seem  here  as  critical  is  given  simply  as  a  matter 
of  comparison,  to  prove  the  futility  of  an  attempt  which  is  far 
beyond  the  possibility  of  a  single  intelligence.  The  managing 
editor  of  the  daily  press  must  know  what  constitutes  a  news 
item.  When  he  attempts  to  know  the  technique  of  many  indus- 
tries, he  is  confronted  with  the  impossibility  of  being  a  specialist 
on  all  things.  Even  in  ordinary  news  items  his  disregard  for 
accuracy  is  subject  to  criticism.  W'hen  you  have  been  honored 
by  an  interview  by  the  average  reporter  in  the  morning,  and 
hasten  to  read  his  report  of  your  wise  sayings  in  his  evening 
edition,  you  are  probably  dumfounded  at  the  liberty  which  he 
has  taken  with  your  mtelligence.  Your  modest  statement  has 
been  probably  exaggerated  beyond  all  possibility  of  identifica- 
tion. This  difference  must,  therefore,  be  noted  in  all  matters 
pertaining  to  Industrial  Journalism,  that  while  the  writer  for  the 
daily  press  may  allow  his  imagination  of  what  should  happen  to 
form  a  basis  of  the  statement  of  what  did  happen,  the  writer  in 
the  Industrial  Press  will  present  the  facts  of  what  did  happen, 
to  his  thoughtful  readers,  who  will  form  their  own  conclusion 
of  what  should  happen  in  the  future.  It  follows  that  the  Indus- 
trial Press  is,  therefore,  able  to  distinguish  itself  and  make  its 
publications  of  great  value  to  the  industry  which  it  serves,  by 
the  simple  accuracy  of  the  information  which  it  prints. 

The  special  sendee  of  a  class  paper  to  an  industry,  con- 
sidered commercially,  brings  us  to  more  tangible  and  specific 
enumeration  than  the  other  topics  have  ofifered.  Publishing  in- 
dustrial papers  is  a  business  that  serves  business.  It  is  a  busi- 
ness that  becomes  profitable  by  assisting  others  to  make  a  profit, 
and  the  commercial  service  of  the  Industrial  Press  offers  such 
evidences  of  its  value  as  are  unquestioned  even  with  the  most 
casual  observation.  The  first  real,  comm.ercial  service  is  to  assist 
the  special  industry,  served  by  its  special  class  paper,  to  an  in- 
telligent production,  both  in  design  and  quality.  From  its  advan- 
tageous position  for  observ'ation,  it  is  able  to  foresee  and  for- 
stall  the  consumer's  wants  and  requirements,  and  to  bring  these 


IxN'  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  65 

needs  to  the  special  attention  of  the  manufacturer.  The  Indus- 
trial Press  is,  further,  of  great  assistance  in  the  determination  of 
certain  qualities  of  manufactured  product,  and  its  relation  to 
price.  It  is  not  always  the  highest  grade  product  that  has  the 
greatest  sale,  and  many  productions  have  a  great  variety  of  quali- 
ties corresponding  to  a  similar  number  of  prices.  The  Industrial 
Press  assists  in  harmonizing  this  relation,  cautioning  an  over- 
production in  certain  lines  and  stimulating  others.  It  also  keeps 
the  manufacturer  posted  on  the  markets  of  the  w^orld — the  spe- 
cial requirements  of  one  locality  to  that  of  another.  Manu- 
factured product  of  a  certain  grade  may  be  unsalable  in  a  certain 
locality,  and  have  a  ready  market  in  another.  These  conditions 
digested,  classified  and  itemized,  are  laid  before  the  producer 
through  the  columns  of  a  competent  industrial  publication.  In 
fact,  one  of  the  specific  commercial  services  rendered  by  the 
Industrial  Press  is  the  stimulation  and  direction  of  intelligent 
production,  both  in  design  and  quality,  harmonizing  these  rela- 
tions with  the  price  of  the  manufactured  product. 

But  the  great  spectacular  commercial  service  of  an  indus- 
trial paper  to  an  industry  is  its  assistance  in  the  economic 
distribution  of  the  production  of  that  industry.  Whatever  ex- 
alted opinion  we  m.ay  have  of  the  high  ideals  of  Industrial  Jour- 
nalism, and  its  exalted  position  in  the  industry  which  it  repre- 
sents, it  finally  comes  down  to  the  purely  commercial  value  of 
this  publication  in  the  distribution  of  the  product.  In  'fact,  the 
real  mission  of  the  Industrial  Press  is  that  it  forms  a  factor, 
and,  perhaps,  we  may  say,  a  most  important  factor  in  a  cam- 
paign of  merchandising.  It  is  the  business  of  the  Industrial 
Press,  not  only  to  direct  methods  of  merchandising,  but  to  make 
actual  sales.  The  great  purpose  of  the  publication  is  finally 
to  bring  the  manufacturer  either  directly  to  his  consumer,  or 
the  consumer  directly  to  the  manufacturer,  or,  to  bring  them 
together  through  the  services  of  the  intermediary  merchant. 
This  service  has  applied  to  it  the  much  hackneyed  and  much 
abused  terms — publicity  and  advertising.  It  may  be  stated  as 
a  cardinal  principle,  that  wherever  an  industry  is  served  by  a 
thoroughly  competent  industrial  publication,  its  pages  offer  the 
cheapest  advertising  that  that  industry  can  buy.  A  great  pub- 
lisher in  the  industrial  field  has  given  as  a  definition  of  adver- 
tising, a  classic  which  should  be  remembered  as  the  first,  last 
and  best  definition  ever  applied  to  the  term.     He  says : 

"  Advertising  consists  in  making  a  favorable  impression  on  a 
possible  customer." 

When   a  manufacturer   desires   to   dispose  of   a  product  he 


66  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUAI 

must  make  its  value  known  to  the  greatest  number  of  possible 
buyers.  If  an  industrial  publication  is  filling  its  mission,  and 
contains  editorial  matter  of  value  to  the  consumer  or  the  mer- 
chant, it  naturally  reaches  those  who  are  best  informed  on  the 
subject,  for  in  no  other  way,  except  by  reading,  can  the  cus- 
tomer (whether  merchant  or  consumer)  keep  fully  posted  on 
the  various  articles  oft'ered  for  his  consideration.  He  must  read 
to  be  wise,  and  having  acquired  a  superior  knowledge  in  this 
particular  field,  his  influence  is  paramount  and  dominating  as 
to  those  W'ho  have  not  taken  advantage  of  this  opportunity.  In 
this  way  a  strong  industrial  publication,  through  its  advertising 
columns,  can  practically  influence,  if  it  does  not  absolutely 
control,  all  the  sales  of  the  industry,  for,  if  a  person  is  not 
sufficiently  well  informed  to  make  purchases  on  his  own  infor- 
mation, the  only  possible  logical  remedy  for  his  defect  is  to 
seek  information  from  some  reliable  source,  and  inasmuch  as  re- 
liable information  is  most  readily  obtained  through  the  columns 
of  the  Industrial  Press,  the  advertiser  is  certain  to  reach  the 
source  of  buying  pow'er  in  placing  his  announcements  in  this 
way  before  those  who,  by  reading  the  Industrial  Press,  become 
the  best  informed,  and  wield  an  influence  which  extends  beyond 
that  of  their  own  purchases  to  those  who  come  to  them  for  in- 
formation. To  illustrate :  If  a  man  of  wealth  desire  to  pur- 
chase for  his  home  an  excellent  piano,  if  said  wealthy  individ- 
ual is  a  musical  critic,  well-posted  on  instruments,  and  keeping 
thoroughly  abreast  of  the  latest  developments  in  all  improve- 
ments, he  reads  a  musical  publication,  and  is  thoroughly  com- 
petent to  decide  for  himself  which  instrument  would  be  suited  to 
his  use.  If,  however,  he  be  a  man  of  the  usual  type,  and 
imfamiliar  with  the  qualities,  construction  or  capabilities  of  an 
instrument,  he  could  not  commit  a  more  stupid  or  a  more  im- 
prudent act  than  to  depend  on  his  own  judgment  in  the  pur- 
chase of  a  piano.  If  he  acts  intelligently,  the  only  course  open 
to  him  is  to  seek  information  from  some  trustworthy  person 
w'ho  he  has  reason  to  believe  is  well-posted  on  productions  of  this 
class,  and  this  well-posted  person,  if  entitled  to  the  confidence 
placed  in  him,  is  a  reader  of  the  Industrial  Press  in  this  line. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  this  great  commercial  service 
to  an  industr}-,  rendered  so  efficient  by  the  trade  press,  cannot 
be  obtained  in  any  other  way.  It  is  certainly  a  fact  that  the 
manufacturer  must  make  the  value  of  his  production  knowm 
to  the  merchant  and  the  consumer.  He  may  locate  the  mer- 
chant through  Bradstreets',  but  the  consumer  is  a  "  needle  in 
the  haystack,"   and  if  he   expects  to   reach   him   by   direct  cor- 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 


67 


respondence,  his  only  sure  way  is  to  address  every  person  in 
the  country, — an  utterly  hopeless  and  stupid  procedure.  Sec- 
ond in  the  rank  of  stupidity  is  the  use  of  publications  of  gen- 
eral circulation  to  attempt  to  reach  a  special  class,  for,  in  order 
to  reach  all  of  the  special  class  we  must  assume  that  all  of  the 
special  class  read  one  or  more  general  publications,  and  allow- 
ing the  assumption,  then  to  reach  all  of  a  special  class  through 
the  media  of  the  general  class  would  be  to  use  all  of  the  general 
class  publications.  Any  attempt  to  discriminate  to  reach  a 
special  class,  by  using  publications  of  the  general  class,  would 
be  to  omit  some  of  the  special  class,  and  a  use  of  any  small  per- 
centage of  the  general  class  publications  would  reach  only  that 
percentage  of  the  special  class  readers. 


^        \      POLITICAL 

/        ^ 

y^  ^         \    PUBLICATIONS 

/     \ 

/    ^EDUCATIONAL  > 

LITERARY  ^\ 

"    \/    ^ 

\           FUNNY 

*^    /   \     0  ' 

FARM               / 

1          PAPERS- 

PAPERS              # 

RELIGIOUS 
PUBLICATIONS 


Area  of  lanje  circle 

GENERAL  CIRCLT-MION 

Airea  of  small  circle 

SPECIFIC  CCRCULATION 


68  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

Someone  has  said  that  advertising  in  trade  papers  is  Hke 
carrying  coals  to  Newcastle,  and  has  urged  the  uselessness  of 
advertising  carriages  in  a  carriage  paper,  reaching  carriage 
builders.  Granted,  if  true.  But,  the  carriage  paper  either  de- 
votes itself  to  the  carriage  builder,  in  which  case  it  becomes 
the  economic  medium  to  advertise  materials  entering  into  the 
construction  of  carriages,  and  machinery  used  by  the  carriage 
manufacturer,  or,  it  is  devoted  to,  and  serves,  the  purchaser  of 
the  product  of  the  carriage  industry,  be  he  merchant  or  con- 
sumer, and  becomes  the  economic  medium  of  communication. 
Some  industries  are  not  yet  served  with  sufficiently  specific  pub- 
lications, and  have  a  composite  circulation  of  the  manufacturer 
and  merchant  or  consumer.  In  this  case,  the  circulation  among 
the  consumers  or  merchants  usually  predominates,  and  thus 
affords  a  better  service  of  publicity  and  advertising  to  the 
manufacturer  than  can  be  otherwise  obtained.  But,  the  tend- 
ency is  strongly  to  specific  journalistic  production,  either  to 
a  journal  for  the  industry  itself,  or,  to  the  journal  for  the  mer- 
chant or  a  publication  for  the  consumer. 

It  will  be  asked  what  place  have  these  facts  in  a  discourse 
tending  to  instruct  in  Industrial  Journalism.  We  are  asked  to 
name  the  special  service  of  the  Industrial  Press  to  its  industry, 
and  we  are  considering  the  commercial  factor  as  indicated  by 
the  percentage  of  sales  of  the  product  of  that  industry  influ- 
enced or  initiated  by  the  advertising  pages  of  said  journal.  Let 
no  one  persuade  you  that  the  Industrial  Press  is  a  philanthropic 
institution,  backed  by  a  Rockefeller  Foundation,  for  the  demon- 
stration of  an  esthetic  principle.  Therefore,  when  we  present 
the  naked  truth  of  the  foundation  of  every  successful  publish- 
ing business,  strip  it  of  whatever  glamour  it  may  have  received 
at  its  baptism,  and  present  it  as  a  pure  commercial  proposition, 
we  believe  we  have  laid  the  foundation  of  an  editorial  con- 
ception, for,  if  the  Industrial  Press  is  to  become  this  great 
power,  and  is  to  perform  its  function  as  the  principal  factor 
in  a  campaign  of  merchandising,  it  must  first  obtain  and  then 
maintain  its  hold  on  one  of  its  three  functions  in  the  industry, 
by  the  supremacy  of  its  editorial  conception,  and  by  the  in- 
tegrity and  ability  exhibited  in  the  final  execution  of  what  has 
been  conceived. 

It  does  not  now  require  any  stretch  of  the  imagination  to 
draw  the  final  conclusion,  nor  any  rhetoric  or  argument  to  show 
the  close  relationship  of  this  merchandising  factor  which  the 
trade  press  constitutes  in  any  industry  to  this  editorial  concep- 
tion and  execution  which  brings  this  factor  into  life,  and  proves 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  69 

its  value.  It  is  only  by  editorial  supremacy  and  absolute  con- 
fidence in  its  editorial  utterances,  that  a  paper  can  hope  to  retain 
its  hold  on  this  vast  purchasing  community. 

A  training  for  Industrial  Journalism  involves  much  more 
than  the  ability  to  use  good  English,  and  to  write  an  interesting 
article.  In  fact,  an  industrial  story  may  be  entirely  spoiled 
by  an  attempt  at  a  high  literary  production.  The  reader  of 
the  Industrial  Press  is  not  looking  for  entertainment,  and  is 
disturbed  rather  than  pleased  at  high-sounding  phrases,  where 
the  simple  and  possibly  less  elegant  construction  will  convey  the 
information  in  a  more  direct  and  more  positive  manner.  In 
Industrial  Journalism  a  straight  line  is  the  shortest  distance  be- 
tween two  points.  It  must  not  abound  in  useless,  tiresome  and 
irrelevant  verbiage.  It  must  be  exact,  pithy  and  to  the  point. 
No  question  but  that  careful  study  as  to  the  mode  of  expres- 
sion is  doubly  essential  in  industrial  literature,  but  any  attempt 
to  be  profound,  bombastic,  rhetorical  or  illusive  will  not  only 
disgust  and  tire  the  reader,  but  will  fail  to  carry  the  more 
salient  point  under  discussion.  The  reader  of  the  Industrial 
Press  wants  the  truth,  wants  it  quickly,  wants  it  at  the  right 
time,  unvarnished,  naked,  forceful,  but  it  must  be  the  truth, 
the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth. 

The  early  history  of  Industrial  Journalism  was  besmirched 
with  the  trade  "  write-up,"  the  "  puff," — and  an  attempt  to  cater 
to  personal  pride  and  prejudice  of  the  advertiser.  It  has  out- 
lived this  degrading  and  debasing  period,  and  stands  to-day,  clean 
and  wholesome  in  its  advocacy  of  what  it  believes  to  be  for  the 
best  interests  of  its  readers. 

The  editorial  department  of  a  proper  industrial  publication  is 
absolutely  divorced  from  its  advertising  department.  In  many 
cases  it  does  not  know  the  names  of  its  important  advertisers. 
Therefore,  any  preparation  for  Industrial  Journalism,  that  is 
not  based  on  a  sound  and  thorough  technical  knowledge  of  the 
industry  to  be  served,  will  be  fatal  alike  to  the  editor  and  pub- 
lisher, and  the  writer  for  the  Industrial  Press  must  equip  him- 
self, not  only  with  all  that  can  be  given  in  correct  diction  and 
proper  enunciation,  but  he  must  thoroughly  supply  himself  with 
a  full  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  all  phases  of  the  industry 
under  observation.  Many  of  the  best  writers  in  this  field 
have  graduated  from  the  industry  itself,  and  the  wisdom  of  their 
expression  is  thus  reenforced  by  an  experience  in  the  shop,  in 
the  factory  or  in  the  mine.  It  may  not  be  necessary  to  shovel 
coal  into  a  furnace  in  order  to  write  a  valuable  article  on 
the  correct  method  of  firing  a  boiler  but  such   experience  will 


yo  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 

be  of  value  to  the  writer  and  unless  he  is  able  to  at  least  identify 
himself  sufficiently  with  the  coal  and  the  shovel  and  the  fire, 
to  appreciate  intelligently  and  accurately  the  best  methods,  he 
is  unfit  to  attempt  instruction  in  this  simple  industrial  em- 
ployment. 

No  question  that  the  foregoing  standards  of  service  mark 
advanced  ground  for  the  Industrial  Press  as  it  stands  to-day. 
But  the  business  press,  like  all  other  forms  of  social,  political 
and  business  development,  is  subject  to  the  laws  of  progressive 
evolution.  If  the  accepted  standards  of  business  practice  in  use 
to-day  were  compared  with  the  uses  and  abuses  of  half  a  century 
ago  the  developments  of  higher  standards  of  ethics  would  be 
plainly  apparent.  These  advanced  standards  do  not  necessarily 
mean  that  the  business  man  has  ascended  to  a  plane  of  advanced 
morality  but  it  does  mean  that  the  principles  underlying  good 
business  are  better  understood  and  the  old  saying,  "  Honesty 
is  the  best  policy,"  has  been  found  to  not  only  soften  the 
cushion  for  an  elastic  and  vibrating  conscience  but  it  is  found 
that  the  principle  adds  to  the  cash  surplus  and  tangible  assets  of 
the  business. 

In  the  same  way  the  Industrial  Press  has  struggled  up 
through  all  sorts  of  misdirected,  stupid  and  illogical  endeavor 
to  a  true  realization  of  its  real  mission,  and  a  more  intelligent 
use  of  the  privileges  and  principles  which  form  the  foundation 
of  its  success.  No  apology,  therefore,  is  offered  for  depicting, 
as  the  foundation  of  its  successful  enterprise,  many  of  the  facts 
of  ever}^  successful  enterprise,  to  which  may  be  added,  with  all 
certainty,  that  while  all  the  publications  of  the  Industrial  Press 
may  not  embrace  all  the  principles  involved  in  the  modem  de- 
velopment of  these  institutions  each  has  undoubtedly  adopted, 
as  the  foundation  of  its  successful  enterprise,  many  of  the  facts 
which  establish  the  correct  relation  between  the  publisher  and 
the  industr}^  which  he  serves. 


The  Technical  Paper  and  the 
Manufacturer 

Fifth   Lecture   in   the    Forum   in   Industrial    Journalism   at   the 
New  York  University,  April  14,  1915 

By  JOHN  A.  HILL 
President,  Hill  Publishing  Com.pany. 

The  relation  of  the  technical  paper  to  the  manufacturer  is 
a  rather  difficult  and  complex  subject,  especially  after  Mr.  Swet- 
land  has  told  you  the  relation  between  fields  and  papers.  In 
technical  publishing,  the  manufacturer  is  the  field,  or  a  large 
and  important  part  of  it.  Now,  I  never  studied  journalism  ex- 
cept in  a  newspaper  office.  I  never  even  attended  a  lecture  on  the 
subject,  much  less  gave  one,  so  you  must  not  expect  the  wis- 
dom of  an  oracle.  I  have,  however,  had  some  experience  and 
shall  call  your  attention  to  a  few  ideals  to  aim  at  (and  point  out 
a  few  dangers  to  avoid),  that  have  been  fairly  successful  in  the 
concern  I  work  for. 

I  take  it  that  none  of  you  expect  to  be  manufacturers,  but 
do  hope  to  be  employed  in  newspaper  offices  and  may  become 
publishers  later  on.  Therefore  I  shall  talk  to  you  just  as  if  you 
were  a  lot  of  young  people  who  were  starting  out  to  make  a 
living  in  the  trade  or  technical  paper  field. 

Now,  I  am  not  one  of  that  vast  army  of  men  who  declare 
that  their  particular  field  is  overrun  and  no  good.  The  technical 
newspaper  field  is  good,  and  needs  brains  and  energy  and  initia- 
tive and  hustle,  just  as  much  as  ever,  and  the  rewards  are  just  as 
sure,  and  liable  to  be  larger.     Welcome  to  the  craft ! 

It  always  make  me  smile  to  hear  a  master  workman  an- 
nounce that  he  wouldn't  want  a  son  of  his  to  learn  his  business 
—I  wish  I  had  one  that  wanted  to  learn  mine. 

I'm  not  afraid  some  bright  young  man  will  take  my  place — 
I'm  afraid  he  won't. 

Don't  be  misled  by  some  people  calling  publishing  a  profes- 

71 


72  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

sion.  Publishing  a  technical  paper  is  business — a  part  of  the 
business  for  which  it  is  published.  The  "  American  Machinist  " 
is  not  so  much  a  part  of  the  publishing  business  as  it  is  a  part 
of  the  machine-making  business. 

Never  be  above  your  business,  but  a  part  of  it — as  important 
and  indispensable  a  part  of  it  as  you  possibly  can  be — and  re- 
member, your  business  will  not  be  making  a  newspaper  so  much 
as  it  will  be  the  establishing  of  a  clearing  house,  a  board  of 
trade,  in  the  field  it  represents. 

You  will  not  accept  a  position  when  you  tie  up  to  a  publisher 
- — ^you'll  get  a  job. 

You  can  probably  learn  more  of  all  the  phases  of  the  pub- 
lishing business  in  a  small  office.  It  is  the  place  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  all-round  man,  but  the  all-round  man  had  better 
stay  in  the  small  office  after  he  has  got  round  enough.  Large 
publishing  houses  do  not  know  what  to  do  with  an  all-round 
man.  This  is  the  age  of  specialists — the  publishers  want  cracker- 
jack  advertising  solicitors,  real  editors,  producing  subscription- 
finders,  painstaking  make-up  men,  honest  office  managers  and 
good  clerks  and  bookkeepers. 

The  only  place  for  the  all-round  man  is  as  the  publisher 
himself ;  and  then  he  is  liable  to  be  more  or  less  of  a  nuisance 
to  the  department  heads — his  middle  name  is  Buttinsky.  I  know ; 
I'm  an  all-round  man  myself. 

A  small  paper  may  have  just  as  high  ideals  as  a  big  one, 
but  it  is  more  liable  to  be  fighting  for  the  right  to  live,  and 
often  obliged  to  do  things  the  easiest  way  or  starve.  Such  con- 
ditions generally  mean  the  starting  and  developing  of  pernicious 
practices  which,  like  other  bad  habits,  are  hard  to  get  rid  of 
later  on,  either  for  the  papers  or  the  men  who  have  been 
trained  there. 

But,  you  are  not  all  going  to  be  publishers  right  away.  If 
I  thought  you  were,  I  would  not  go  home  to-night,  but  go  back 
to  the  office  and  get  to  work.  I  like  some  competition,  but 
prefer  it  retail  rather  than  wholesale. 

Don't  get  the  notion  that  there  are  better  opportunities  some- 
where else.  It  is  useless  to  go  West  seeking  new  land  when 
half  your  own  State  is  vacant,  and  nearer  markets.  There  is  no 
publishing  Eldorado,  no  place  best  to  go  into  the  business.  Take 
the  work  nearest  to  hand  and  do  it  better  than  anybody  else, 
and  you  will  get  on ! 

If  you  want  to  be  an  adwriter,  write  some  ads  for  anybody 
you  know,  the  grocer  or  the  plumber.  Write  'em  good  enough 
so  that   they   will  print   them   in   some   paper ;   the   newspapers 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  73 

want  to  find  young  men  who  can  write  ads  and  get  people  to 
publish   them. 

You  can  get  a  better  hearing  in  a  publishing  house  with  a 
few  samples  of  your  own  work,  than  with  a  testimonial  from  your 
Sunday  School  Superintendent. 

If  you  aspire  to  an  editorial  position,  write  something  that 
an  editor  will  want  to  publish,  and  present  it ;  it  won't  be  long 
before  the  editor  and  the  proprietor  will  be  watching  you,  and 
making  noises  like  a  salary. 

Cultivate  vocal  modesty,  but  make  yourself  conspicuously 
tiseftil. 

Don't  wait  for  opportunities — make  them. 

The  publishing  world  may  owe  you  a  living — but  you  have 
to  collect  the  debt  yourself. 

The  technical  publishing  business  consists  of  three  visible 
principal  divisions  of  work.  The  management,  the  editorial,  and 
the  selling  departments  are  visible.  Each  of  these  has  minor 
departments  of  its  own,  all  important,  but  tributary  to  the 
main  department. 

The  management  concerns  the  details  of  the  physical  produc- 
tion of  the  paper,  and  its  relations  with  its  customers — all  de- 
partments are  under  its  general  guidance. 

The  editorial  is  the  life  blood  of  the  publication.  Its  conduct 
is  as  important  to  the  paper  as  a  well-behaved  heart  to  an 
athlete. 

The  selling  department  disposes  of  the  work  of  all  other  de- 
partments.    It  is  both  the  digestive  tract  and  the  food  supply. 

But  back  of  all  and  greater  than  all,  is  an  invisible  depart- 
ment which  I  would  call  the  spirit  of  the  paper.  It  is  vested 
in  the  controlling  ownership. 

It  should  hold  itself  responsible  for  the  character  and  honor 
and  reputation  of  the  publication. 

It  is  the  conscience  of  the  institution — that  one  thinking 
mind  which  forever  asks  itself,  "  Is  this  right?  " 

The  management  may  be  the  brains,  the  editorial  the  heart, 
the  advertising  department  the  digestion,  and  all  the  minor  de- 
partments the  arms  and  legs  and  eyes  and  ears  of  that  peculiar 
institution,  a  technical  paper;  but  that  invisible,  responsible,  con- 
trolling conscience,  is  the  soul  of  the  whole  thing. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  you,  but  most  technical  newspaper 
diseases  originate  in,  and  concern,  this  soul  department.  For 
there  are  good,  bad  and  indififerent  souls. 

Most  of  the  weaknesses,  most  of  the  wrong  practices,  most 
of    the    crookedness,    meanness,    injustice,    arrogance    and    fear 


74  LECTURES  IX  THE  FORUM 

shown  by  any  paper  are  caused  by  the  wabbly  soul  behind  all  the 
outward  show  of  what,  but  for  it,  might  be  a  great  institution. 

I  refer  to  this  responsible  soul  as  one — and  it  always  is ; 
real  responsibility  is  never  plural. 

Battles  have  been  won  by  poor  generals,  but  never  by  a  de- 
bating society. 

Councils  of  war  always  vote  for  retreat  or  surrender — that 
is  what  they  are  called  for. 

Behind  ever\'  successful  army  and  ever}-  successful  engi- 
neering paper,  is  one  mind  that  grimly  stands  and  says,  "  I 
will." 

^^'hen  this  soul  is  healthy,  it  may  inconvenience  some  of  the 
other  departments,  it  may  sacrifice  some  temporary  advantage, 
it  may  choose  to  lose  money,  rather  than  make  it,  but  with  an 
eye  single  to  the  upbuilding  of  the  character  and  honor  and 
usefulness  of  the  paper  that  soul  department  of  one  man  for- 
ever guides  the  enterprise  fonvard,  and  toward  the  port  of  suc- 
cess, slowly  perhaps,  making  detours,  but  forever  coming  back 
to  the  pole  star  which  guides  true. 

These  souls  are  not  inherited,  they  are  not  born — they  grow. 
And  you  may  become  a  good  one  if  you  have  the  right  stuflf  in 
you  and  you  let  it  come  out.  If  you  have  the  right  stufif  in  you 
and  don't  let  it  out,  you  will  become  a  punk  soul  and  a  bad 
spirit. 

Of  course,  you  cannot  become  the  soul  of  any  proposition 
right  on  the  start — there  are  no  amateur  souls — so  you  will 
naturally  get  into  the  other  departments,  minor  ones  at  first,  and 
then  into  one  of  the  three  principal  divisions. 

Here  are  a  few  random  thoughts  on  the  work  in  each  which 
might  give  you  a  suggestion  or  two : 

The  Editorial 

It's  a  particular  job  for  instance  to  be  editor  of  anything, 
but  an  editor  of  a  technical  paper  has  to  be  more  than  par- 
ticular— most  of  'em  get  fussy. 

A  technical  paper  should  be  the  air  scout  of  the  business  it 
tries  to  serve.  The  men  engaged  actively  in  the  business  of, 
say,  mining,  are  too  busy  to  travel  or  correspond  with  many  of 
their  colleagues — the  technical  paper  does  that.  It  should  be  a 
clearing  house  of  ideas  for  the  improvement  of  the  business  as 
a  whole,  an  arena  for  free,  frank  discussion  of  all  important 
subjects — the  editor  presides,  he  is  a  judge  not  a  dictator. 

A  technical  paper  that  does  not  teach  its  readers  how  to  do 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  75 

things  in  their  particular  line,  better,  cheaper  or  faster,  has  no 
excuse  to  live. 

Editors  must  make  the  reading  of  the  paper  pay  the  readers. 

Technical  papers  are  not  read  for  entertainment,  but  tech- 
nical information  can  be  conveyed  in  an  entertaining  way.  One 
of  the  greatest  scientific  books  in  the  world,  Tyndall's  "  Heat — a 
Mode  of  Motion,"  is  as  entertaining  as  a  novel. 

Putting  the  human  interest  into  it  does  not  detract  from  the 
value  or  accuracy  of  the  technical  information  you  wish  to  con- 
vey and  impress,  a  pat  example  or  a  happy  simile  will  keep  the 
facts  ever  green  in  the  memory  and  amuse  the  reader  enough  to 
make  the  whole  thing  palatable. 

The  immortal  Chordal  amplified  the  rule  that  the  friction  of 
a  bearing  is  governed  by  the  load  per  square  inch  on  the  projected 
area,  rather  than  by  the  size  of  the  bearings,  by  showing  that 
a  brick  pulled  across  a  board  would  bring  a  spring  scale  pointer 
down  to  the  same  place,  no  matter  whether  it  was  slid  on  its  flat 
side,  on  the  edge,  or  on  the  end — the  brick  weighed  the  same 
and  produced  the  same  amount  of  friction,  no  matter  how  it 
was  placed. 

Thousands  of  mechanics  in  this  country  remember  the  brick 
and  the  rule,  who  would  never  have  remembered  the  rule  itself. 

Few  of  you  know  how  many  days  there  are  in  October 
without  remembering  that  old,  indispensable, 

"  Thirty  days  hath  September, 
April,  June  and  November,"  etc. 

Telling  a  story  of  how  Danny  Dugan,  Jim  Skeevers  or  John 
Smith  did  a  thing,  or  figured  themselves  out  of  a  difficulty,  will 
be  remembered  and  can  be  visualized  much  better  than  a  mathe- 
matical statement  could  possibly  be. 

An  established  paper  with  a  reputation  is  an  engine  which 
can  do  much  good  and  much  harm.  Maybe  editors  ought  to  be 
licensed  like  other  engineers. 

Editorial  utterances  must  be  verified  and  guarded  with  eter- 
nal vigilance — all  the  readers  are  on  the  jury.  If  you  do  not 
think  they  are  awake  make  a  mistake  or  misstatement  and  see 
how  quick  and  sharp  you  get  called. 

An  unjust  insinuation,  a  criticism  from  a  writer  without  full 
information  may  do  great  injury. 

Prejudice,  narrowness,  indigestion,  cocksureness,  conceit 
and  ingrowing  dispositions  should  not  be  allowed  in  editorial 
chairs. 


76  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

If  you  aspire  to  editorial  honors — and  no  man  should  be, 
or  generally  is,  honored  more  than  the  conscientious  editor  of  a 
technical  paper — saturate  your  soul  with  the  meaning  of  the 
word  "  helpfulness."  Like  the  Soldier  King  of  France,  in- 
scribe upon  your  banner,  '*  I  serve." 

Editors  should  be  selected  from  direct  descendants  of  King 
Solomon  and  his  first  wife — experience  is  invaluable. 

Editors  have  to  fight  the  college  professor's  disease  of  ossifi- 
cation— of  staying  too  long  at  the  graduating  exercises — of  stop- 
ping satisfied  at  first  base. 

All  the  arts  and  sciences  are  progressing  so  fast  that  the 
weekly  papers  can  scarcely  keep  up  with  them — they  can  only 
give  a  moving  picture  summary  of  important  events.  Nothing 
stays  put. 

The  editorial  mind  must  be  open,  it  must  love  the  truth,  seek 
the  new  and  be  willing  to  forget  the  old  when  it  is  superseded. 

Being  an  editor  of  a  technical  paper  for  a  year  will  drown 
a  man  in  his  own  conceit — or  take  it  all  out  of  him. 

No  man  can  be  a  successful  editor  who  has  not  something 
of  the  schoolmarm  in  his  blood. 

Teachers  and  editors  often  forget,  however,  that  the  pupils 
to  whom  they  can  do  the  most  good  are  always  coming  to  them, 
and  leaving  when  they  have  been  helped  a  little. 

]\Iany  editors  educate  themselves  beyond  the  capabilities  of 
their  readers  to  understand ;  they  forget  that  they  themselves 
are  the  only  ones  continuously  in  school.  Keep  in  touch  with 
the  work  in  your  field. 

No  editor  who  sticks  to  his  desk  can  hope  to  be  a  success ; 
he  must  go  after  things  as  well  as  sift  the  voluntary  contributors. 

Technical  papers  must  aim  at  the  men  who  do  things — men 
who  are  responsible  for  results ;  they  need  and  seek  information, 
and  use  it,  and  appreciate  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  technical  papers  must  be  edited  with 
the  assumption  that  the  audience  knows  the  fundamentals  of 
the  business. 

Kindergarten  papers  cannot  accomplish  much.  The  readers 
are  not  in  responsible  positions,  they  do  not  buy  things  nor  in- 
fluence buying,  the  advertiser  will  not  pay  for  them,  and  they 
themselves  cannot  support  a  paper  without  advertising. 

An  editor  must  not  be  above  his  business,  and  the  readers 
and  advertisers  are  part  of  the  business.  He  must  give  the 
news — that  which  originates  with  the  advertiser  just  as  much  as 
that  originating  with  the  reader.  Let  him,  however,  use  a  little 
of  that  blood  inherited  from  Solomon  to  pick  and  choose,  select 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  ^7 

news  and  avoid  the  concealed  advertising  which  the  advertising 
manager  offers  him — syndicated  from  Dan  to  Beersheba. 

The  maxim  of  the  editorial  department  should  be  the  one 
word  "  accuracy,"  but  make  it  interesting  as  well  as  accurate. 
The  multiplication  table  is  accurate,  but  it  is  not  interesting. 

Now  as  to  Management 

In  the  managerial  department  are  all  the  people  who  are 
learning  the  business.  These  minor  positions  are  very  important, 
for  from  here  come  most  of  the  men  who  will  hold  responsible 
places  on  the  papers  of  the  future. 

When  you  connect  witli  any  job  here,  you  have  all  the 
start  necessary.  Make  that  job  shine.  Don't  worry  about  pro- 
motion much,  nor  get  palpitation  of  the  wishbone. 

More  than  thirty  years  ago  I  ran  a  daily  paper  in  Colorado 
and  remember  one  morning  as  I  came  in,  the  foreman  was 
hiring  a  boy.  He  had  a  bright-faced  little  Irish  kid  before  him. 
"  Now,  young  fellow,"  said  he,  "  if  I  give  you  this  job  there 
must  be  no  fooling,  you  got  to  work."  "  Say,  mister,"  replied 
the  boy,  "  if  you  gimme  that  job  I'll  be  a  regular  camel !  " 
"  Wha'  d'ye  mean,  camel  ?  "  asked  the  foreman.  "  Well,"  with  a 
grin,  "  a  camel's  got  a  hump  on  hisself,  ain't  he?  " 

Chances  of  promotion  are  good,  publishers  are  not  trying 
to  hold  back  their  employees,  they  are  anxious  to  push  them 
ahead  as  fast  as  they  show  they  deserve  and  can  stand  re- 
sponsibility. 

Every  responsible  position  in  our  concern  is  occupied  by  a 
promoted  employee.  Our  vice-president  and  general  manager 
started  as  an  office  boy  at  $2.50  per  week.  Every  paper  manager 
came  up  in  the  house.  Our  treasurer  and  secretary  were  book- 
keepers, our  assistant  treasurer  is  a  woman  who  started  as  a 
stenographer  in  short  skirts  and  a  short  salary — we  are  a  co-ed 
institution. 

Nothing  but  work  and  persistence  counts,  there  is  a  great 
temptation  to  transplant  oneself  for  a  few  dollars  a  week  extra. 
If  you  are  working  for  dollars  only,  this  is  all  right.  Don't  move 
except  for  a  better  chance  to  grow— but  be  sure  the  new  ground 
is  favorable  for  healthy  growth. 

The  young  man  who  makes-up  the  paper  may  so  conduct  his 
work  as  to  make  permanent  or  to  disgust  any  advertiser. 

The  paper  manager,  the  make-up,  the  adwriter  or  any  other 
employee  who  writes  a  letter  to  an  advertiser  becomes  the  con- 
cern itself  to  that  customer,   and   should   conduct  his   business 


78  LECTURES  IX  THE  FORUM 

with  that  one  thought  in  mind.  The  cleverest  advertising  sohci- 
tor  in  the  world  cannot  hold  business  against  indifference,  care- 
lessness, freshness  and  stupidity  in  those  who  conduct  the  office 
details ;  if  you  are  in  this  department,  remember  it  is  your  place 
to  keep  the  business  after  it  starts.  The  house  depends  on  you 
to  satisfy  this  one  particular  customer,  and  give  him  a  service 
which  will  bind  him  to  the  paper  with  bands  of  steel.  Study 
letter  writing^  it  is  vital. 

If  the  humblest  track  man  neglects  his  work,  the  Limited  will 
come  to  grief,  even  with  the  best  engineer  at  the  throttle. 

One  of  the  pitiful  things  in  newspaper  life  is  for  a  young 
man  to  get  an  office  job — one  that  he  dislikes,  but  finding  no 
other  he  settles  into  it — and  is  lost. 

jMost  of  this  comes  from  the  fact  that  he  hates  the  job,  does 
just  as  little  of  it  as  he  can,  watches  the  clock  to  escape  from 
it,  gets  pessimistic,  loses  hope,  accumulates  responsibilities  and 
perhaps  a  few  gray  hairs  and  before  he  knows  it  is  tied  to  a 
$io  job  for  life,  a  disappointment  both  to  himself  and  his 
employer. 

The  only  dift'erence  between  a  rut  and  grave  is  that  the  rut 
is  longer.     Keep  out  of  ruts. 

Before  you  start  in,  tr}^  to  pick  out  the  kind  of  work  you 
like  to  do,  not  the  kind  which  pays  best,  but  the  kind  which  is 
a  pleasure  to  you.  Then  analyze  yourself  to  find  out  if  you 
have  the  mental  equipment  to  make  good. 

Be  merciless  in  this  self-examination,  don't  fool  yourself, 
this  occupation  question  is  like  marriage — for  keeps.  Corns  or 
Cancer,  you  want  to  know  just  what  your  handicap  is,  if  you 
have  one. 

Ignorance  is  not  a  handicap — you  can  learn.  Poverty  is  not 
a  handicap — you  can  work.  Look  out  for  fear — turn  ever}^  "  I 
can't  "  into  "  I  can,"  if  it  is  humanly  possible.  Beware  of  the 
hook  worm — the  microbe  which  produces  "  that  tired  feeling." 

If  you  have  the  selling  instinct,  develop  it,  study  selling  and 
try  to  fit  yourself  for  an  advertising  salesman,  but  any  work  you 
do  in  office  positions  will  do  more  to  fit  you  for  the  road  than 
any  correspondence  course.  By  contact  you  will  become  familiar 
with  the  product  you  expect  to  sell  and  this  is  all  essential. 

If  you  have  a  head  for  details,  a  good  memory,  industr}^  and 
imagination,  aim  toward  managership.  Imagination  is  absolutely 
necessary  in  a  good  manager,  he  must  have  the  ability  to  dream, 
but  he  must  also  have  the  initiative  to  make  his  dreams  come 
true.  Initiative  alone  is  forever  busy  doing  things,  good,  bad  and 
indifferent,  a  man  with  initiative  and  lacking  imagination  needs 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  79 

a  manager.  The  man  with  the  vision  and  lacking  initiative  Hves 
in  the  clouds  and  makes  everything  foggy  in  a  newspaper  office. 
Take  your  dreaming  by  degrees.  Men  never  make  much  progress 
by  dreaming  too  big,  dreamers  of  this  kind  run  the  government 
and  reform  the  world  in  every  little  grocery  store  and  harness 
shop  in  America. 

You  will  start  in  some  minor  place  on  some  paper,  and  let 
me  advise  you  to  think  of  that  place  only.  Fill  it  as  it  has  never 
been  filled  before,  and  then  study  the  work  in  the  next  best 
place. 

No  fireman  was  ever  promoted  because  he  was  a  good  engi- 
neer, but  because  he  was  a  good  fireman. 

If  you  are  looking  for  a  soft  job  and  short  hours,  don't 
go  into  the  publishing  business  and  expect  to  get  beyond  the 
job  of  night  watchman.  Publishing  any  paper  which  is  worth 
while  means  that  all  is'ers  on  the  job  must  keep  wide  awake — 
eight  hours  a  day  is  for  the  office  boy  not  the  manager. 

Get  all  the  information  you  can  by  contact  with  other  people 
in  your  line,  talk  and  listen — especially  listen.  But  do  not 
listen  with  your  ears  alone,  listen  with  your  brain.  Sort  and 
sift  what  you  hear  and  try  to  apply  it  to  your  field  and  the  people 
in  it — but  try  it  backward  first.  Ask  why  it  won't  work  as  well 
as  why  it  will. 

Reason  out  things  and  come  to  your  own  conclusion  as  to 
what  ought  to  be  done — and  then  do  it. 

Don't  ask  too  much  advice,  you  can  always  get  a  unanimous 
vote  not  to  do  something. 

Avoid  jealousy  and  envy.  Every  act,  thought  and  word 
about  a  competitor  is  a  direct  loss  to  your  own  paper — mind  your 
own  business. 

Ignore  competition  and  paddle  your  own  canoe — the  river 
is   wide. 

Live  a  decent  business  life,  do  things  because  they  are  right 
rather  than  expedient. 

Every  mouthful  you  eat  and  every  rag  you  wear  must  come 
from  the  publishing  business — keep  it  clean. 

Crime  injures  the  victim,  the  criminal  and  the  community. 
You  cannot  do  bad  things  in  business  that  do  not  harm  the 
whole  fraternity  as  well  as  yourself. 

Integrity  commands  respect  for  the  paper  that  practices  it 
and  distinctly  elevates  the  whole  business. 

Be  a  good  neighbor — shovel  ofif  your  own  walk. 

Remember  the  business  day  to  keep  it  holy  is  a  six  times 
better  maxim  than  that  one  about  Sunday. 


8o  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUJM 

I  do  not  recommend  that  you  be  goody-goody  or  open  your 
office  with  prayer,  you  can  even  be  disagreeable  if  you  want  to, 
but  you  can  get  the  confidence  of  your  customers,  the  admira- 
tion of  your  associates  and  the  respect  of  your  own  conscience 
by  simply  tr}'ing  to  do  the  square  thing  as  an  everyday  occu- 
pation. 

Don't  expect  to  set  the  world  on  fire — it's  too  green  to  burn. 

Don't  beat  your  head  against  the  bars  because  your  readers 
or  advertisers  do  not  come  quickly  to  your  way  of  thinking. 

You  must  wean  them  to  your  way  by  patient,  persistent 
attrition.  You  are  not  an  earthquake,  but  a  little  stream  cutting 
a  path  for  yourself,  grain  by  grain,  against  the  granite  of  inertia 
and  indifference.    Don't  dam  yourself  up,  keep  running. 

Do  not  follow  more  precedents  than  you  make  yourself — 
and  never  fear  to  make  one  if  you  think  you  are  right. 

Originality  and  initiative  are  the  only  things  which  pay  well 
in  the  publishing  business. 

Doing  as  well  as  the  others  is  not  doing  well  enough. 

Each  one  of  you  has  an  individuality  of  your  own — develop 
that — it's  a  harp  with  one  string,  but  you  can  make  it  play  a 
tune  which  cannot  be  duplicated. 

If  you  ever  get  into  a  responsible  position,  for  Heaven's 
sake,  do  something  first  once  in  a  while — don't  be  a  "  me-too." 
Get  yourself  and  your  paper  marked  "  Original  "  not  "  Dupli- 
cate." 

The  Selling  End 

A  technical  paper  has  but  two  things  to  sell,  subscriptions  and 
advertising  space.  Selling  either  successfully  calls  for  all  the 
ability  anyone  can  carry.  The  subscription  campaigns  call  for 
genius  in  devising  plans  and  carrying  them  out.  Mail-order 
subscription  work  requires  constant  invention  of  new  schemes 
and  endless  patience  and  persistence,  besides  a  painstaking  keep- 
ing of  records  and  results. 

A  subscription  list  is  a  list  of  names  and  addresses  and  its 
care  is  only  routine,  but  technical  papers  can  no  longer  be  con- 
tent with  mere  lists  of  names  but  must  select  them  so  that  they 
will  represent  buyers  to  the  advertiser.  Direct  salesmanship  in 
the  subscription  field  needs  men  with  traces  of  the  census  taker 
and  the  detective,  to  find  the  right  man,  list  him  and  his  business 
and  secure  his  subscription. 

Men  who  can  sell  advertising  are  loved  by  the  publisher  and 
married  into  the  family  whenever  possible. 

Advertising  is  the  visible  means  of  support,  if  there  be  any. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  8i 

of  all  papers,  technical  included.  Were  it  otherwise,  the  two 
dollar  paper  would  cost  twenty  dollars  and  not  be  worth  two — 
because  advertising  is  as  useful  and  as  necessary  a  part  of  the 
real  information  the  worth  while  reader  must  have,  as  the  text. 

When  a  reader  writes  in  that  he  doesn't  like  the  paper  be- 
cause it  has  so  much  advertising,  it  is  a  sure  sign  that  his  name 
on  the  list  costs  more  than  it  is  worth. 

No  shop  superintendent,  no  mill  or  mine  manager,  no  civil 
engineer  in  charge  of  work,  can  be  even  fairly  well  posted  on 
the  best  and  latest  things  with  which  to  do  his  work  either  better, 
faster  or  cheaper  without  reading  the  advertising  of  a  good  paper 
in  his  field.     Advertising  is  edited  now  almost  as  much  as  text. 

Advertising  in  technical  papers  must  aim  at  permanency  and 
repeat  orders.  Billboards  and  dodgers  and  sandwich  men  ap- 
peal to  the  immediate,  one  time,  transient  trade — like  a  new 
restaurant  or  a  side  show. 

Selling  advertising  must  be  on  the  basis  of  a  service  rendered 
which  will  make  the  salesman  welcome  when  he  comes  next 
year. 

Gravestones  and  cemetery-  real  estate  are  sold  but  once;  if 
you  lie  to  the  buyer  or  cheat  him,  you  may  get  away  with  it — 
but  advertising  contracts  expire  and  must  be  renewed  if  the 
paper  lives. 

Promise  only  what  you  can  perform,  give  the  advertiser  a 
square  deal,  not  a  lot  of  chromos  and  concessions ;  make  his  ad 
pay  him,  and  the  renewal  and  increase  will  come  easier. 

All  buyers  are  "  bears  " — they  seldom  let  the  seller  know  they 
are  pleased  with  his  goods.  They  all  come  from  ^Missouri — ad- 
vertising men  must  not  be  discouraged  at  all  they  say. 

Very  few  things  are  bought  nowadays — they  have  to  be  sold. 

Did  you  ever  know  of  a  man  who  went  into  a  life  insurance 
office  and  announced  that  he  wanted  ten  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  insurance?  No.  Yet  ever}'  sensible  man  knows  that  insur- 
ance is  desirable,  even  necessar}',  for  him  to  have.  He  makes  the 
agent  sell  it  to  him — convince  him  of,  and  explain  all  its  ad- 
vantages. 

Though  you  make  the  best  paper  on  earth,  you  will  have  to 
convince  the  manufacturer  of  its  worth  and  sell  him  space — few 
of  them  will  come  to  you ;  if  one  does,  Burbank  him— his  kind 
needs  propagation. 


82  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

The  Manufacturer 

I  ought  to  at  least  reconcile  all  this  advice  I  give  you  with  the 
subject  of  my  talk. 

What  has  the  manufacturer  to  do  with  all  this? 

Very  little  until  the  technical  paper  connects  the  manufacturer 
with  its  readers.  That  connection  must  come  through  the  papers, 
not  the  manufacturers,  for,  as  I  have  told  you,  the  paper  is  the 
seller  and  must  make  the  approach. 

The  technical  paper  in  any  field  is  a  part  of  the  distributing 
machinery  of  the  manufacturer,  just  as  salesmen  are. 

To  be  sure,  a  manufacturer  may  decide  not  to  use  salesmen, 
just  as  he  may  decide  not  to  use  advertising — but  such  a  man 
cannot  compete  long  with  the  live  ones  who  use  all  means  of 
salesmanship  and  distribution. 

The  technical  paper  must  be  prepared  to  sell  its  services  both 
to  those  who  want  and  those  who  think  they  do  not  want  them. 

One  of  the  greatest  improvements  in  the  usefulness  of  tech- 
nical papers  will  come  with  the  education  of  the  manufacturer 
to  the  proper  use  of  the  space  he  pays  for. 

When  he  spends  time  and  money  to  get  the  truth  about  his 
goods  written  in  plain,  straightforward,  sink-in  English,  his  re- 
turns will  increase. 

When  he  cuts  out  the  attempt  to  bluff  or  wheedle  the  pub- 
lisher into  printing  puffs  for  his  goods,  and  toots  his  own  horn 
to  his  own  grandstand,  the  more  returns  he  will  get. 

When  he  strangles  the  advertising  experimenter  who  designs 
advertising  with  freak  borders,  screaming  type,  irrelevant  refer- 
ences and  surreptitious  attempts  to  father  illegitimate  literature, 
instead  of  telling  plainly  how  and  how  much  corn  this  particular 
machine  can  shell,  the  more  shellers  the  manufacturer  will  sell. 

When  the  larger  manufacturer  is  made  to  realize  that  he  is 
not  advertising  his  business  for  sale,  he  is  not  trying  to  sell 
vignetted  half-tones  of  himself,  he  is  not  trying  to  sell  a  set  of 
all  his  products  to  each  reader — he  will  get  more  returns. 

Many  manufacturers  look  with  favor  upon  an  advertisement 
which  spreads  its  ample  folds  over  his  whole  establishment,  like 
a  mother  hubbard,  covering  everything  and  touching  nothing. 
You  must  teach  him  better. 

An  advertisement  should  offer  but  one  thing  at  a  time. 

Any  article  worth  advertising  deserves  all  the  space  and 
words  and  pictures  in  that  advertisement  for  but  one  thing — to 
help  sell  that  particular  article. 

No  girl  ever  became  engaged  because  she  introduced  all  her 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  83 

brothers  and  sisters,  with  an  intimation  that  they  would  live 
with  her  when  she  was  married. 

Manufacturers  must  be  shown  that  the  page  is  a  good  enough 
measure  of  advertising  for  any  one  article,  but  is  no  measure  at 
all  for  the  advertising  of  a  concern  making  many  things.  He 
should  be  convinced  that  he  ought  to  advertise  each  article  as  if  it 
was  his  only  product. 

Some  things  will  not  need  as  large  a  space  as  another — vests 
take  less  cloth  than  frock  coats.  Some  articles  have  too  small 
a  sale  to  stand  much  exploitation.     Others  need  a  great  deal. 

Technical  papers  will  make  a  great  stride  ahead  when  they 
stop  manufacturers  from  trying  to  yell  their  names  and  addresses 
into  the  business  telephone.  Too  much  space  is  wasted  in  big 
firm  names  and  addresses.  Make  the  talk  about  the  goods  so  in- 
teresting and  convincing  that  readers  will  see  a  modest  address. 

There  are  great  improvements  in  advertising  necessary  and 
some  of  them  will  come  soon,  for  example : 

Take  any  technical  paper,  take  the  best  one  you  can  find — 
one  of  ours — and  read  the  advertisements.  Then  put  yourself 
in  the  place  of  a  man  in  Idaho  or  Mexico  or  the  Argentine,  who 
is  at  last  convinced  that  this  or  that  particular  machine  would 
be  worth  while  for  him,  then  try  to  get  some  specific  informa- 
tion from  that  advertisement  about  that  machine.  How  big  is 
it,  or  how  many  sizes  do  they  make  anyway  ?  What  capacity  has 
it?  How  much  does  it  weigh?  Does  that  motor  come  with  it? 
Where  is  the  nearest  agent?  Is  that  side  frame  steel  or  cast 
iron?  How  do  you  change  jaws  wnth  that  shaft  where  it  is?  etc., 
etc.  You  won't  get  definite  information  in  one  ad  out  of  a  hun- 
dred. You  will  get  a  collection  of  praiseful  adjectives,  a  disser- 
tation on  why  you  will  get  hopelessly  beaten  unless  you  get  this 
machine  before  your  competitor  wakes  up,  some  testimonials,  and 
maybe  a  coupon  to  send  for  a  catalogue — if  you  have  time. 
And  the  catalogue  won't  tell  you  what  you  need  to  know,  like  as 
not,  when  you  do  get  it. 

Now  advertising  is  and  can  be  more  direct  than  that,  more 
useful  to  the  reader,  more  definite.  Describe  the  goods,  reduce 
the  brag.  Edit  each  ad  until  it  conveys  interesting,  useful  in- 
formation, in  the  fewest  possible  words. 

This  education  of  the  technical  publisher  folk,  and  the  manu- 
facturer, is  your  work,  you  younger  men  and  women  coming  into 
the  technical  publishing  field — commence  by  going  to  night  school 
yourselves. 

The  manufacturer  has  to  be  educated,  and  the  technical 
papers  must  do  most  of  it,  but  their  makers  have  not  yet  gotten 


84  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 

out  of  the  grammar  school  themselves — and  are  only  a  grade 
or  so  ahead  of  the  manufacturer — not  yet  licensed  to  teach. 

Advertising  is  a  part  of  the  great  commercial  system  of  this 
country  and  it  must  have  tremendous  capacity  for  good,  or  it 
could  not  survive  the  well  meant  amateur  doctors  that  dose  it 
with   nostrums  of  their  own  devising. 

The  good  technical  paper  has  one  advantage  that  no  other 
form  of  publicity  or  sales  force  can  have,  and  that  is  the  in- 
terested attention  of  the  customer  when  his  mind  is  on  the  sub- 
ject of  his  business. 

In  the  first  place  all  readers  of  technical  papers  are  busy 
men  of  affairs.  They  read  the  paper,  not  for  entertainment, 
sport,  politics  or  religion,  but  to  keep  posted  on  their  business. 
When  they  read  of  work  in  the  text  the  advertising  shows  them 
the  details  of  the  equipment  the  work  was  done  with — it  is  all 
germane  to  the  subject. 

Make  the  manufacturer  realize  this. 

It  is  well  to  make  friends  of  your  customers,  but  friendship 

alone  is  a  poor  basis  to  solicit  business  on — business  is  business. 

Every  transaction  between  a  technical  paper  and  an  advertiser 

should  be  mutually  satisfactory  and  profitable,   then  it.  can  be 

permanent. 

If  the  editorial  policy  makes  the  paper  profitable  to  the 
right  kind  of  readers,  the  readers  will  make  it  profitable  to  the  ad- 
vertisers, and  the  advertisers  will  make  it  profitable  to  the  pub- 
lishers. 

Now  none  of  these  things  I  have  recommended  to  you  is 
impossible  of  attainment. 

None  of  them  is  very  hard  to  do. 

Almost  every  publisher  tries  to  do  some  of  them,  but  if  all 
you  young  people  went  into  the  work  determined  to  do  all  of 
them  all  the  time,  another  decade  would  see  you  in  charge  of 
every  department,  from  Soul  to  Syntax,  on  every  good  technical 
paper  in  America. 

And,  the  publishing  business  would  compete  with  heaven  as 
a  place  for  you  to  live,  while  we  older  publishers  could  wrap  our 
preferred  stock  about  us  and  lie  down  to  pleasant  dreams. 


The  News  Service  of  the  Trade  and 
Technical  Press 

Sixth   Lecture   in   the   Forum   in   Industrial   Journalism   at   the 
New  York  University,  /\pril  28,  191 5 

By  W.  HETHERINGTON  TAYLOR 
President,. David  Williams  Company. 

Business  is  operated  by  an  extremely  complex  system — de- 
pendent on  news  to  furnish  energy,  just  as  your  body  is  depend- 
ent on  blood,  to  furnish  your  energy.  Without  blood  your  body 
would  die.  Without  news,  organized  business  would  die.  Just 
as  your  arteries  carry  tissue-building  corpuscles,  so  does  the 
trade  and  technical  press  carry  business-building  news. 

Your  body  demands  clarified,  energized  blood.  Business 
demands  clarified,  verified  news — not  the  hastily  collected,  un- 
verified kind  but  the  kind  so  reliable  that  the  business  men  will 
know  by  the  facts  published,  whether  to  buy  or  sell  a  Wool- 
worth  building,  a  railroad,  a  ton  of  pig  iron  or  a  pound  of  nails. 

The  news  sense  of  the  trade  and  technical  journalist  must 
be  no  less  acute  than  that  of  the  daily  journalist,  but,  as  we 
shall  see,  news  standards,  and  news  values,  in  the  two  lines,  are 
different.  Let  us  take  a  moment  to  enumerate  the  classes  of 
news  with  which  the  trade  and  technical  press  chiefly  deals. 
We  shall  give  a  very  important  place,  in  the  case  of  the  trade 
journals,  to  news  of  the  markets,  and  of  this,  more  in  detail,  as 
we  proceed.  If  the  paper  has  to  do  largely  with  manufacturers, 
it  should  have  much  to  say  about  the  instrumients  of  production, 
and  their  economical  use,  in  manufacturing  processes ;  to  new 
methods  of  manufacture,  and  new  systems  for  dispatching  or  ex- 
pediting business ;  to  the  problems  of  management,  including 
efficiency  in  selling,  in  handling  of  men,  and  in  all  the  details 
of  shop  organization  and  operation;  to  developments  in  re- 
search, and  in  the  technical  progress  of  the  industr}^,  as.  for 
example,  metallurgical  progress  in  the  steel  trade.  Another 
department  of  news  which  requires  infinite  patience  in  follow- 

85 


86  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

ing  up  has  to  do  with  new  enterprises,  and  enlargements  of  ex- 
isting enterprises,  in  trade  and  manufacture.  Here  is  a  mine, 
rich  in  business-getting  possibilities  to  the  reader.  Trade  con- 
ventions, which  in  their  modern  development,  have  come  to 
wield  a  widespread  influence,  should  be  carefully  reported.  Now 
that  government  is  having  so  much  to  do  with  business,  the 
merchant  and  the  manufacturer  look  to  the  press,  in  their  re- 
spective trades,  for  well-digested  news  of  legislation,  proposed 
or  passed,  directly  affecting  their  interests.  The  relation  of 
employer  and  employee,  and  labor  developments  in  legislation, 
and  in  judicial  decisions,  should  have  careful  attention,  in  their 
bearing  upon  wage  standards  and  cost  of  manufacture.  News 
of  the  export  trade  should  be  handled  in  a  way  that  will  lead 
to  its  largest  expansion,  which  will  mean  that  the  trade  paper 
must  point  out  opportunities  for  business  in  new  markets,  and 
must  further,  in  ever}'  way,  the  enlargement  of  the  home  manu- 
facturer's trade  abroad.  Personal  news,  properly  treated,  should 
prove  one  of  the  best  departments  in  the  entire  paper.  Mem- 
bers of  a  trade  are  always  keenly  interested  in  what  has  hap- 
pened to  their  colleagues ;  but  personal  mention  should  never  be 
frivolous,  and  obituaries  should  not  be  too  minute,  nor  should 
they  be  effusively  eulogistic.  Changes  in  firms,  or  ownership  of 
companies ;  removals  of  business  houses ;  new  offices  opened ; 
new  representatives  appointed — all  this,  and  kindred  informa- 
tion, is  highly  valuable,  bearing  about  the  same  relation  to  a 
business  that  personal  news  bears  to  the  individual. 

As  a  basic  principle  in  its  handling  of  markets,  for  example, 
the  trade  paper  serves  both  the  buyer  and  the  seller,  when  it 
sets  forth  in  its  reading  columns  trade  conditions  exactly  as  the 
editor  finds  them.  It  is  in  no  way  the  duty  of  an  editor  to  pub- 
lish his  personal  opinion,  as  to  whether  the  market  price  on 
any  commodity  will  be  higher  or  lower  next  week,  next  month, 
or  next  year.  It  IS  his  duty,  however,  to  give  all  controlling 
market  facts.  He  should  give  all  information  obtainable,  con- 
cerning representative  transactions.  But  above  that,  he  should 
be  an  interpretei*  of  transactions.  To  show  the  trend  of  things, 
that  the  reader  may  know  when  to  go  into  the  market  and  buy, 
is  the  height  of  good  market  reviewing,  but  is  a  height,  to  be 
sure,  not  always  possible  to  attain.  Then,  apart  from  the  week- 
to-week  review  of  trade  developments,  there  should  be  from 
time  to  time  the  broader  survey,  in  better  perspective,  from  which 
he  who  reads  between  the  lines  can  determine,  with  some 
definiteness,  whether  trade  conditions  are  favorable,  or  not,  for 
enlarging  operations. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  87 

So  you  see  a  very  great  responsibility  rests  on  the  editor 
of  a  trade  or  technical  paper.  He  knows,  only  too  well,  the 
master  he  serves,  and  how  swift  and  sure  will  be  his  pun- 
ishment if  he  cannot  maintain  a  high  standard  of  accuracy  or 
fails  to  live  up  to  his  opportunities.  His  master  is  the  buying 
and  selling  public,  in  whose  hands  is  the  decision  as  to  whether  a 
trade  paper  is  fit  to  live. 

To  give  you  some  idea  how  effective  public  opinion  is,  more 
than  95  per  cent,  of  all  trade  papers  that  have  been  founded, 
have  been  put  to  death,  and  out  of  that  mortality  has  grown 
this  epigram:  "Any  fool  can  start  a  trade  paper;  they  stop 
themselves."  So,  you  see  the  position  of  editor  carries  great 
responsibility.  It  requires  a  man — not  of  the  skim-milk  kind, 
or  just  a  type.  He  must  be  a  personality — not  a  mere  per- 
son. He  must  have  backbone,  courage  and  unflagging  energy 
to  become  a  personality,  because  to  become  a  personality,  means 
work,  work,  and  then — more  work. 

The  successful  trade  and  technical  publication  is  handled 
by  trained  editorial  experts,  most  of  whom  are  devoting  their 
lives  to  their  chosen  vocation.  The  blacksmith  at  his  forge,  the 
weaver  at  his  loom,  the  engineer,  either  in  the  field  or  in  the 
office,  the  works  manager,  the  retail  merchant — whether  it  be 
dry  goods,  groceries  or  hardware- — each  has  his  special  trade 
or  technical  paper.  He  subscribes  to  his  trade  paper,  because 
he  wants  to  keep  posted  on  everything  doing  in  his  special 
field.  He  demands,  and  expects  to  find,  up-to-the-minute  news 
of  market  conditions,  inventions,  shop  or  store  practice,  im- 
proved processes,  and  all  the  other  matters  enumerated  above. 
And  last,  but  not  least,  he  wants  to  know  as  much  about  his 
competitors  as  it  is  honorable  for  him  to  know,  because,  if  he 
is  thoroughly  alive,  as  a  business  manager,  he  must  know  how  to 
meet  competitive  campaigns,  not  only  in  selling,  but  in  manu- 
facturing. 

The  trade  and  technical  papers  are  rendering  a  service  to 
readers,  who  are  highly  efficient  and  are  experts  in  their  several 
branches  of  business ;  who  are  trained,  by  both  education  and 
practice,  to  an  exact  knowledge  of  what  they  need.  The  editor's 
market  reports  must  therefore  be  as  accurate  as  human  endeavor 
can  make  them.  He  must  know  when  an  invention,  or  a  new 
process,  has  true  merit,  and  how  best  to  describe  it  for  the 
benefit  of  his  readers.  He  must  cultivate  initiative  and  develop 
ideas  that  will  fire  ambition  and  create  enthusiasm,  which  means 
first,  last  and  all  the  time,  that  he  must  know  his  readers.  He 
must  know  what  his  readers  are  thinking  about,  and  he  must 


88  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

learn  to  think  in  terms  of  their  business.  Then  he  must  put  in 
his  paper  what  will  positively  help  them  in  their  business.  One 
view  of  the  function  of  the  trade  paper  has  been  epitomized 
in  the  saying — "  The  test  of  the  value  of  an  article  is  whether 
it  tells  the  reader  how  to  make  a  dollar  or  save  a  dollar."  From 
the  news  standpoint  that  seems  a  narrow  and  mercenary  stand- 
ard, but  it  will  have  a  better  sound  if  we  stretch  it  to  include 
everything  in  the  way  of  news  which  broadens  the  reader's  view 
of  his  field,  and  better  equips  him  to  meet  competition  and  to 
satisfy  his  customer. 

Trade  paper  men,  as  we  have  indicated,  occupy  a  peculiarly 
confidential  relation  to  their  subscribers.  While  daily  journalism 
has  been  growing  more  and  more  impersonal,  trade  journalism 
has  developed  the  personal  factor  into  more  and  more  of  a 
power.  This  desirable  relation,  or  good  will,  can  only  be 
established  after  years  of  service ;  in  other  words,  the  paper  is 
tried  out  by  the  subscriber,  and  if  it  is  a  worth-while  paper,  he 
expresses  his  approval  by  renewing  his  subscription.  You  can 
get  a  pretty  fair  estimate  of  a  business  man's  ideals  by  the  trade 
paper  he  reads. 

It  is  not  my  wish  to  make  invidious  comparisons,  but  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  leading  trade  papers  in  any  given  field 
render  their  industry  a  far  greater  service  than  any  other  class 
of  publication  renders  to  the  field  of  its  adoption.  A  trade 
paper  is  really  a  pioneer.  It  must  not  only  be  the  means  for  the 
dissemination  of  knowledge  in  old  established  communities,  but 
in  newly  established  communities  as  well. 

If  the  subscriber  is  a  manufacturer,  he  is  always  on  the 
lookout  to  find  ways  and  means  to  reduce  his  manufacturing 
cost.  He  wants  immediate  information  on  every  labor-saving 
machine  that  may  be  invented.  IMillions  of  dollars  are  invested 
in  textile  machinery  in  this  country.  It  is  said,  if  a  machine 
could  be  invented  that  would  reduce  the  cost  of  manufacturing 
textiles  two  and  one-half  per  cent.,  that  the  machinery  now  being 
used  would  have  to  be  thrown  out  to  be  replaced  by  the  new 
invention. 

The  shop  manager  searches  the  trade  and  technical  press 
for  ideas  that  will  make  his  factory  more  efficient.  The  sales 
manager  expects  his  trade  paper  to  keep  him  thoroughly  posted 
in  regard  to  the  best  market  in  which  to  sell.  He  must  be  thor- 
oughly posted  on  prices ;  he  must  keep  up  to  date  as  to  the 
latest  and  best  method  of  advertising  for  the  reason  that  he 
learned  long  ago  that  goods  well  advertised  are  more  easily  sold. 
The  buyer  for  the  concern  reads  his  trade  paper  so  as  to  be  thor- 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  89 

oughly  posted  as  to  when  and  where  to  buy  and  what  price  to 
pay.  And  right  here  I  want  to  emphasize  the  importance  of 
the  care  that  must  be  taken  in  furnishing  the  figures  that  estab- 
lish the  ruling  market  quotation.  As  the  condition  of  the  market 
is  influenced  by  supply  and  demand,  it  is  necessary  to  establish 
the  actual  price  at  which  a  certain  commodity  is  sold,  and  if  doubt 
exists  in  the  reporter's  mind,  he  must  get  verification.  It  is 
also  necessary  for  the  market  reporter  to  know  whether  or  not  a 
sale  has  been  forced  by  unusual  conditions,  such  as  a  sheriff's 
sale,  or  a  wash  sale  to  influence  the  market. 

And  at  this  point  we  face  the  question :  Does  it  take  one 
or  more  than  one  sale  to  establish  a  market  price?  To  my 
mind,  if  a  sale  has  been  made,  and  competition  meets  these 
prices,  then  the  reporter  can  report  that  goods  can  be  bought  in 
this  particular  market  at  the  prices  quoted,  thus  establish- 
ing a  market  quotation,  but  great  care  must  be  exercised,  or  much 
harm  will  be  done,  either  to  the  producer  or  to  the  consumer.  If 
the  quotation  is  less  than  it  ought  to  be,  then  you  are  forcing 
the  producer  to  sell  his  product  for  less,  and  giving  the  customer 
an  unfair  advantage.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  market  quota- 
tion is  higher  than  the  actual  market,  then  the  producer  has  the 
advantage  and  the  consumer  is  made  to  suft'er. 

To  illustrate :  About  a  year  ago  the  "  Iron  Age  "  reported 
a  sale  of  a  large  amount  of  steel  at  a  price  slightly  lower  than 
had  been  quoted  for  some  time  previously.  One  of  the  largest 
producers,  whom  we  will  call  Mill  No.  i,  questioned  the  relia- 
bility of  the  price  reported.  They  took  the  ground  that  no  such 
sale  had  been  made  at  that  figure.  Within  ten  minutes  we  had 
our  Pittsburgh  reporter  on  the  wire.  He  reported  that  the 
sale  had  been  made,  and  the  correct  price  quoted.  He  was 
asked  to  get  immediate  verification,  which  he  did.  It  seems 
that  a  buyer  was  in  the  market  for  a  large  amount  of  a  certain 
kind  of  steel.  He  wrote  to  several  producers  for  figures.  Among 
the  quotations  furnished  was  one  from  Mill  No.  i,  who  had 
quoted  the  exact  figures  that  the  buyer  finally  bought  the  steel 
at,  only  he  bought  it  from  another  concern.  The  seller  had  the 
inside  track,  and  was  told  that  he  could  have  the  order,  providing 
he  would  meet  the  price  quoted  by  Mill  No.  i.  So  you  see  Mill 
No.  I  was  really  responsible  for  breaking  the  market,  and  if 
they  had  stood  firm,  and  quoted  the  market  price,  it  is  doubtful 
if  that  lot  of  steel  could  have  been  bought  at  less  than  market. 

Great  care  must  be  exercised  in  the  selection  of  the  men 
who  gather  the  information  on  wdiich  to  establish  a  ruling  market 
price.     j\Iany  of  the  men  whose  duty  it  is  to  get  the  facts  on 


90  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

which  the  iron  and  steel  and  the  machinery  market  reports  in 
the  "  Iron  Age  "  are  based,  have  been  engaged  continuously  for 
a  long  term  of  3'ears. 

I  know  of  no  reporting  in  the  wide  world  where  a  higher 
degree  of  care  and  intelligence  is  required,  for  the  reason  that 
a  mistake  may  cost  somebody  enormous  sums  of  money.  I'm 
sure  it  will  interest  you  to  know  that  millions  of  tons  of  iron 
and  steel  are  sold  under  contracts  in  which  it  is  specified  that  the 
buyer  will  pay  and  the  seller  will  accept  the  prices  quoted  in 
the  "  Iron  Age."  To  illustrate :  The  New  York  Chilled  Plow 
^^"orks,  in  making  up  its  budget  for  its  year's  supply  of  raw 
material,  discovers  it  is  going  to  need  5,000  tons  of  pig  iron 
ever}'-  month  for  the  next  ten  months.  To  make  sure  of  getting 
this  raw  material,  they  go  to  the  American  Iron  Company,  who 
agree  to  deliver  to  the  factory  of  the  New  York  Chilled  Plow 
Works,  5,000  tons  of  pig  ever}^  month  for  ten  months.  The 
New  York  Chilled  Plow  Works  agrees  to  pay,  and  the  American 
Iron  Company  agrees  to  accept,  the  prices  quoted  in  the  "  Iron 
Age,"  and  although  millions  of  tons  of  iron  and  steel  have  been 
sold  on  just  such  .contracts,  so  far  as  I  know%  not  a  single,  soli- 
tar}'-  contract  has  been  repudiated. 

In  the  matter  of  news  standards,  the  trade  press  and  the 
daily  press  have  both  contacts  and  differences.  Never  forget 
that  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  is  not  news,  and  that  the 
moment  news  matter  reaches  its  destination,  it  ceases  to  be  news. 
This  limitation  points  out  the  ever  present  Nemesis  of  all  news- 
papers, the  element  of  time. 

The  trade  journal  is  the  distributor  of  commercial  informa- 
tion upon  which  transactions  of  large  importance  are  based.  It 
acquires  authority  in  the  industry  it  ser^'es,  not  because  it  is 
always  the  first  to  make  reference  to  new  developments,  but  be- 
cause it  establishes  a  maximum  of  accuracy.  It  must  always  vie 
with  the  daily  press  in  enterprise,  which  in  the  case  of  news 
matter  means  publication  quickly,  or  when  it  is  news — but  the 
trade  paper  must  always  make  promptness  of  publication  second- 
ar}'  to  accuracy.  In  other  words,  it  may  be  forgiven  waiting  to 
get  proper  verification  of  a  report,  but  to  print  incorrect  and 
misleading  reports  is  unpardonable.  It  can  lose  more  reputation 
by  a  single,  glaring  mistake,  than  it  can  gain  by  a  dozen  strokes 
of  enterprise  in  as  many  issues. 

In  the  trade  journal  field,  accuracy  means  not  only  a  correct 
statement  of  fact,  but  a  representation  of  news  with  a  correct- 
ness of  perspective  as  well.  This  involves  a  knowledge  on  the 
part  of  the  editor  gained  from  broad  and  intimate  acquaintance 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  91 

with  the  business  mechanism  of  the  industry  his  paper  serves. 
It  is  true,  with  rare  exceptions,  that  the  editor  of  a  trade  paper 
knows  in  what  manner  news  should  be  presented  to  the  trade,  so 
that  its  correct  significance  shall  be  transmitted,  better  than  does 
the  trade  itself.  As  the  circle  which  the  news  medium  serves 
grows  smaller,  the  sources  of  information  and  the  readers  are 
more  clearly  defined.  Their  relation  with  the  paper  grows  cor- 
respondingly closer,  and  the  frequency  with  which  news  is  inter- 
changed between  the  source  and  the  destination  increases  in 
like  degree,  with  this  result,  that  the  trade  paper  which  serves 
the  small  circle  of  its  own  industry,  not  only  obtains  its  news 
from  the  same  sources,  year  in  and  year  out,  but  its  sources  of 
information  are  also  its  constant  readers.  Under  these  condi- 
tions of  intimate  contact,  an  error  of  fact,  or  judgment,  becomes 
an  unerring  boomerang.  There  is  thus  a  constantly  impending 
responsibility,  so  direct  that  it  has  no  counterpart  in  any  other 
field  of  news   distribution. 

If  you  would  have  proof  positive  that  this  partnership  of  the 
reader  and  the  editor,  is  vastly  more  influential  in  business  jour- 
nalism than  was  the  fact  only  a  few  years  ago,  find  out  what 
it  is  costing  any  successful  trade  or  technical  journal  to-day  to 
maintain  an  editorial  organization  and  to  buy  contributions  and 
news  service.  Some  of  them  have  doubled  their  editorial  outlay 
since  1900. 

We  shall  get  a  better  idea  of  the  diiTerence  between  the 
news  standards  of  trade  and  technical  journals,  and  those  of 
the  daily  press,  if  we  take  a  concrete  example.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  August  30,  1907,  the  daily  papers,  all  over  the  world, 
told  of  a  disaster  in  which  the  great  bridge  that  was  to  span 
the  St.  Lawrence  at  Quebec,  fell  into  the  river  when  half  fin- 
ished, a  hopeless  wreck  of  twisted  steel.  The  general  public 
was  intensely  interested  in  the  details  of  the  accident,  because 
eighty  engineers  and  workmen  lost  their  lives,  and  because  the 
longest,  single  span,  cantilever  bridge  in  the  world  had  collapsed 
in  the  builders'  hands.  Its  interest  was  just  like  that  of  the 
general  reader  in  the  news  that  800  lives  had  been  lost  by  the 
burning  of  the  Iroquois  Theater  in  Chicago,  or  by  the  sinking 
of  the  Titanic.  Bridge  builders  and  engineers  knew,  like  all 
of  the  rest  of  the  world,  that  the  Quebec  bridge  had  fallen,  but 
they  could  not  find  from  the  daily  papers  what  they  most  of  all 
wanted  to  know,  namely,  why  the  bridge  fell.  That  remained 
for  the  trained  experts  of  the  engineering  publications  to  tell. 
In  five  business  days  after  the  accident,  the  engineering  papers 
appeared  with  a  veritable  volume  on  the  Quebec  bridge  disaster. 


92  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

liberally  illustrated  with  sectional  drawings,  strain  sheets  and 
half-tone  views,  giving  as  the  result  of  their  editors'  investiga- 
tions on  the  grounds,  an  explanation  of  the  cause  of  the  failure, 
that  was  substantially  borne  out  by  the  later  official  investiga- 
tions. 

Another  more  recent  illustration :  On  December  14,  1914,  the 
fireproof  factory  buildings  of  Thomas  A.  Edison,  located  at 
Orange,  N.  J.,  were  destroyed  by  fire,  leaving  only  the  bare 
walls.  The  morning  papers  the  following  day  gave  long  ac- 
counts of  the  spectacular  features  of  the  fire  telling  also  of  the 
magnificent  courage  of  j\Ir.  Edison  in  deciding  to  rebuild  at 
once.  This  was  news,  of  course,  but  not  the  kind  of  news  that 
the  engineering  and  technical  world  wanted  to  know^  They 
w-anted  to  know  why  buildings  that  were  supposed  to  be  fire- 
proof should  have  been  so  quickly  and  completely  destroyed. 
In  less  than  a  week's  time  the  complete  story  w'as  told  and 
illustrated  in  nearly  all  the  trade  and  technical  publications. 
Not  only  were  the  defects  pointed  out  but  remedial  measures 
suggested  of  great  value  not  only  to  engineers,  but  factor}^  own- 
ers and  managers  as  well. 

The  trade  and  technical  editor  makes  no  appeal  to  his  readers 
with  the  sensational,  as  is  made  in  every  issue  of  the  daily 
press.  The  elements  of  misfortune  and  destruction,  so  promi- 
nent in  the  news  of  the  day,  weigh  little  with  him,  for  the  news 
he  prints  must  be  constructive.  Accidents  at  industrial  works, 
no  matter  how  appalling,  only  have  value  to  his  readers  as  his 
account  of  them  shows  why  such  accidents  occur,  and  how^  they 
may  be  avoided.  The  daily  paper  has  finished  with  a  boiler 
explosion  when  it  has  told,  with  some  detail,  how  many  lives 
were  lost,  and  how  a  great  manufacturing  plant  or  power  build- 
ing was  wrecked.  It  may  be  some  days  before  the  weekly 
paper  devoted  to  power,  brings  out  the  evidence  that  improper 
handling  by  employees,  or  a  defect  in  construction,  or  in  the 
steel,  was  responsible  for  the  accident ;  but  the  latter  publication 
will  be  authoritative,  and  will  give  to  boiler  users  and  boiler 
builders  invaluable  information  obtainable  nowhere  else. 

^^■hile  the  business  journal  is  distinguished  from  the  daily 
newspaper  in  having  trade  and  industrial  aft'airs  as  its  sole  field, 
its  presentation  of  such  new^s  should  be  marked  by  just  as 
great  independence,  and  by  just  as  great  regard  for  the  interest 
of  the  readers,  as  is  shown  in  the  news  columns  of  the  daily  press. 
If  a  new  metal  working  machine  is  described  in  a  journal  devoted 
to  machiner}'.  the  article  must  tell  the  reader  not  only  w^hat  im- 
proved construction  is  embodied,  so  that  his  knowledge  of  the  de- 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  93 

velopment  of  the  art  may  be  increased,  but  it  must  tell  the  manu- 
facturer in  whose  shop  such  a  machine  might  be  used,  just  what 
economy  it  would  work  in  his  operations.  The  fact  that  giving  such 
details  would  also  benefit  the  inventor  or  maker  of  the  machine, 
does  not  rule  them  out  of  the  article,  though  such  benefit  is  no 
part  of  the  purpose  in  publishing  them.  But  in  all  that  is  said 
of  new  devices,  for  reducing  cost  of  manufacture^  or  of  new 
articles  of  merchandise  which  may  appeal  to  the  ultimate  con- 
sumer, on  the  score  of  merit  and  price,  the  writer's  attitude 
should  be  that  of  a  judicial  skeptic.  He  should  tell  what  is 
new  in  the  thing  described,  but,  never  for  a  moment,  should  he 
take  the  viewpoint  of  the  seller,  or  forget  that  his  function  is 
that  of  reviewer  and  not  salesman. 

One  of  the  great  missions  of  the  trade  press,  on  its  news  side, 
is  to  bring  to  the  average  man,  in  any  trade,  be  he  manufacturer 
or  dealer;  to  bring  to  the  isolated  concern,  working  out  its  own 
salvation  away  from  the  great  centers  of  activity — the  stand- 
ards, the  methods  and  the  successes  of  the  best  brains  in  that 
particular  trade.  In  what  it  does  for  the  smaller  operator,  who 
is  out  of  the  main  currents  of  trade,  the  business  journal  may 
be  made  a  tremendous  power  in  toning  up  the  commercial  life  of 
the  lesser  cities  and  towns.  Weeks  of  time,  and  thousands  of 
miles  of  travel,  would  not  give  the  isolated  dealer  or  manu- 
facturer, a  tithe  of  the  contacts  with  the  best  life  in  his  line 
of  work,  that  he  is  able  to  get  by  the  thorough  reading  of  a 
single  issue  of  his  trade  paper. 

I  take  it  that  you  are  anxious  to  ask  how  trade  and  technical 
editors  become  expert,  and  in  asking  that  question  you  touch  the 
very  heart  of  the  industry^  for  the  reason  that  what  the  sub- 
scriber really  buys,  is  the  product  of  editorial  brains.  While 
it  is  true  that  a  publication  can  be  greater  than  the  men  who 
make  it,  it  is  equally  true  that  small  men  never  made  great 
dominating  journals. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  publishers  are  rarely  editors,  so  it 
is  up  to  the  publisher  to  find  his  editors,  and  here  is  where  the 
students  of  this  university  should  be  vitally  interested.  If  the 
publisher  is  looking  for  a  managing  editor,  it  goes  without  say- 
ing that  he  must  have  for  that  work  a  man  who,  by  long  train- 
ing and  experience,  has  a  highly  efficient  knowledge  of  the  field 
his  publication  serves. 

Now  you  ask :  "  How  can  I  fit  myself  to  fill  a  position  of  such 
great  importance?"  If  the  publication  is  published  in  the  in- 
terest of  some  engineering  or  scientific  field,  it  will  be  necessary 
for  you  to  get  an  engineering  or  scientific  education. 


94  LECTURES  IN  THE  F0RU:M 

There  was  a  time  when  any  kind  of  a  writer  could  get  a 
job  on  a  trade  paper.  In  the  old  days,  only  one  question  was 
asked :  "  Can  you  write,  and  are  you  willing  to  tackle  any  subject 
either  technical,  scientific  or  general,  found  between  the  north 
and  south  poles  ?  " 

If  there  was  one  curse  under  the  sun  worse  than  another, 
from  which  the  early-day  trade  and  technical  press  suffered,  it 
was  the  superficial  writer — the  man  who  pretended  to  know, 
and  who  could  fill  pages  on  any  given  subject  without  giving  ex- 
pression to  a  single  valuable  idea. 

To-day  practical  training  is  necessary,  some  of  which  the  in- 
dividual can  give  himself  unassisted : 

First,  by  keeping  eyes  and  ears  open.  Always  keep  your 
note-book  in  your  pocket  properly  classified  and  indexed.  In  this 
book  you  should  have  in  course  of  preparation,  ten  or  twenty 
important  subjects  on  which  you  expect  some  time  to  write  an 
editorial. 

Second,  by  reading  and  studying  all  the  books  and  papers 
bearing  on  these  dift'erent  subjects. 

Third,  go  to  ever}^  convention  or  association  meeting  you 
can  reach. 

Fourth,  get  into  the  game  yourself.  If  your  paper  is  de- 
voted to  retailing,  get  behind  the  counter  and  sell  goods.  If  your 
field  is  manufacturing,  break  into  some  factor}^  where  they  are 
actually  doing  things,  even  though  you  are  compelled  to  offer 
your  services  for  nothing. 

Practical  knowledge  is  what  you  want ;  you  cannot  buy  it 
with  money,  you  cannot  steal  it.  There's  only  one  way  to  get 
it — earn  it.  Over  the  doorway  of  Jefferson  Medical  College  in 
Philadelphia,  is  a  Latin  sentence,  which  translated  reads,  "  The 
gods  sell  ever\-thing  for  work." 

As  a  direct  preparation  for  work  upon  a  particular  trade 
journal,  you  should  get  some  acquaintance  with  its  readers,  or 
even  with  non-readers,  in  the  field  of  that  paper.  The  best 
object  lesson  that  I  know  of  would  be  to  go  out  and  sell  sub- 
scriptions. You  would  soon  learn  what  it  is  the  subscriber 
wants  to  buy. 

Nothing  short  of  wide  reading,  persistent  study,  trained  per- 
ception and  ability  to  systematize,  will  ever  make  you,  or  any 
one  else,  a  managing  editor.  Do  not  make  the  mistake  that  be- 
cause you  are  a  contributor  you  are  fitted  to  be  an  editor.  There 
is  a  dift'erence,  I  assure  you. 

The  future  is  rich  in  opportunity.  Efficiency  in  production 
is  only  in  its  infancy.     Just  think  of  the  waste  of  getting  motive 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  95 

power  from  coal.  Fully  ninety  per  cent,  is  lost.  Fifteen  years 
ago  the  steam  engine  was  considered  the  most  efficient  method, 
commercially,  of  obtaining  power  from  coal.  Then  followed  the 
steam  turbine.  To-day  it  is  the  gas  producer  furnishing  energy 
for  the  internal  combustion  engine.  Who  can  say  what  the 
method  of  obtaining  energy  from  coal  will  be  fifteen  years  from 
to-day?  Will  the  jitney  bus  take  the  place  of  the  trolley  car, 
and  after  the  bus,  then  what  ?  Will  electrical  energy  be  available 
directly  from  coal  with  the  steam  or  the  gas  engine  no  longer 
used  as  an  intermediary?  Will  the  airship  replace  the  steam- 
boat? Who  can  doubt  but  some  day  passengers  will  be  carried 
from  New  York  to  London  through  the  air? 

The  motor-driven  truck,  with  its  great  carrying  capacity,  is 
fast  taking  the  place  of  the  inefficient  horse-drawn  truck.  This 
change  alone  will  mean  the  rebuilding  of  nearly  all  freight  houses 
and  platforms  to  expedite  loading  and  unloading  of  goods,  as 
well  as  the  building  of  well-paved  roads  capable  of  sustaining 
heavy  vehicle  traffic,  in  every  freight  yard  where  freight  is  loaded 
and  unloaded. 

Above  all,  is  the  development  of  the  conservation  movement, 
which  seeks  not  alone  to  secure  high  efficiency  from  men,  as 
well  as  from  materials,  but  to  utilize  by-products  which  have 
formerly  been  allowed  to  go  to  waste. 

Our  methods  of  production  are  admittedly  bad,  but  nothing 
compared  to  the  faulty  methods  employed  in  distribution.  Just 
think  for  a  moment — a  bushel  of  potatoes  that  the  farmer  sells 
and  delivers  to  a  freight  car  at  his  railway  station  for  75c.  a 
bushel,  costs  you  from  $2.00  to  $4.00  a  bushel  in  your  kitchen. 
A  crate  of  eggs  that  the  farmer  sells  for  25c.  a  dozen  costs  fifty, 
sixty  and  seventy  cents  a  dozen  in  your  home.  Can  you  think 
of  anything  more  inefficient,  than  to  see  fifty  meat-delivering 
vehicles  stopping  before  one  apartment  house  delivering  meat 
to  fifty  different  families,  when  one  delivering  wagon  would  have 
done  the  work  just  as  efficiently?  I  am  told  that  it  costs  such 
stores  as  Gimbel  Brothers,  Wanamaker,  and  Lord  &  Taylor  at 
least  three  cents  on  every  dollar's  worth  of  goods  that  they  sell 
for  delivery. 

There  is  no  country  in  the  history  of  the  world  in  which  the 
growth,  both  in  population  and  industry,  has  been  as  great  or 
as  wonderful  as  it  has  been  in  the  United  States.  Nor  has  any 
country  in  the  world  a  brighter  outlook  or  a  more  confident 
promise  of  growth,  and  I  think  I  can  state,  without  fear  of  con- 
tradiction, that  this  country  will  maintain,  or  even  improve  its 
percentage  in  growth,  over  the  last  twenty-five  years.     Did  you 


96  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 

ever  stop  to  think  what  this  enormous  growth  means  to  the  agri- 
cultural and  manufacturing  interests?  In  1915  we  have  about 
17,000,000  more  people  in  the  United  States  than  we  had  in 
1905.  These  17,000,000  people  consume  68,000,000  pounds  of 
farm  produce  daily  to  haul  which  requires  2,250  freight  cars  of 
30,000  pounds  capacity  each.  If  they  only  buy  two  pairs  of  shoes 
per  year,  the  shoe  manufacturers  have  a  market  in  191 5  for 
34,000,000  pairs  of  shoes  that  they  did  not  have  in  1905.  The 
same  illustration  can  be  applied  to  dry  goods,  clothing,  hats  and 
caps,  and  for  every  individual  purchase,  amounting  to  hundreds 
of  millions  of  dollars.  When  you  stop  to  think  that  our  natural 
growth  for  ten  years  is  equal  to  the  population  of  two  countries, 
each  larger  than  Canada,  you  will  get  a  bird's-eye  view  of  our 
industrial  and  agricultural  growth. 

In  your  study  of  the  future,  you  must  ever  keep  in  mind  this 
law  of  growth.  What  was  adequate  ten  years  ago  is  inadequate 
now.  Ten  years  from  to-day  we  will  find  business  methods  that 
do  not  now  exist,  brought  about  by  the  inexorable  demand  made 
necessary  by  the  great  growth  in  this  country  of  both  population 
and  business,  and  it  is  only  fair  to  measure  the  future  by  the 
past.  Business  was  never  on  such  a  solid  foundation.  We  are 
leading  the  world  in  finance,  manufacturing  and  commerce.  Just 
as  we  have  a  growing  betterment  in  business,  so  may  we  expect 
better  business  methods  to  succeed  the  old,  and  as  the  country 
grows,  and  develops  in  population  and  industry,  so  will  the  de- 
mands on  the  trade  paper  editor  grow.  The  business  world  can 
depend  upon  the  trade  and  technical  press  to  do  its  part  in  this 
wonderful  development.  Its  already  highly  efficient  field  serv- 
ice will  continue  to  develop — always  fully  abreast,  and  oft- 
times  leading,  the  field  in  which  it  serv^es. 

The  trade  and  technical  press  stands  for  the  American  busi- 
ness man.  It  believes  in  his  genius,  his  brain,  his  honesty  and 
his  integrity;  that  he  is  engaged  in  solving  great  problems,  the 
solution  of  which  wnll  bring  benefit  to  all  mankind ;  and  he 
will  always  find  the  business  editor  ready  and  willing  through 
the  columns  of  his  paper  to  assist  in  every  practical  way. 


The  Standards  of  Practice  of  the 
Business  Press 

Seventh  Lecture  in  the  Forum  in  Industrial  Journalism  at  the 
New  York  University,  May  5,   191 5 

By  W.  H.  UKERS 

Editor  and  Publisher,  The  "  Tea  and  Coffee  Trade  Journal  " ; 
President,  The  New  York  Trade  Press  Association. 

We  are  living  in  the  beginning  of  the  World's  Golden  Age — 
the  age  of  Business,  and  its  motto  is  EFFICIENCY. 

Crowns  and  thrones  are  tottering  in  Europe.  False  prophets, 
false  Gods  are  crashing  about  our  ears.  Churchianity  has  been 
weighed  in  the  balances  and  has  been  found  wanting.  Only  the 
ideals  of  the  Gentle  Christ  remain.  And  in  the  market  place 
men  are  asking,  "  Can  a  successful  business  man  also  be  a 
Christian?" 

A  Permanent  World  Peace  Guarantee 

The  answer  has  been  given  by  a  business  man,  a  publisher, 
Herbert  S.  Houston,  standing  in  the  Congress  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce  of  the  United  States,  when  he  urged  that  the  economic 
pressure  of  the  world's  commerce  was  the  most  effective  possible 
safeguard  of  the  world's  peace  and  that  its  application  should  be 
provided  for  as  a  penalty  in  future  Hague  conventions.  Strange, 
no  one  thought  of  it  before — a  commercial  embargo  against  any 
nation  that  shall  raise  its  hand  against  a  brother  nation,  a  modern 
application  of  the  Curse  of  Cain.  Permanent  world  peace  can 
be  brought  about  only  through  the  mediation  of  the  world's 
business  men. 

The  Golden  Age  of  Business 

"  111  blows  the  wind  that  profits  nobody."  Scientists,  phi- 
losophers and  statesmen  are  telling  us  that  out  of  Europe's  Guilty 

97 


98  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

Madness  much  good  may  come.  Certain  it  is  that  out  of  this 
human  shambles,  with  ail  its  attendant  misery  and  devastation, 
there  is  being  born  "  Time's  Noblest  OiTspring,"  the  Reign  of 
Reason,  the  World's  Golden  Age  of  Business. 

Westward,  ever  westward  the  course  of  Empire  takes  its  way. 
Here  in  America  the  stage  has  long  been  set  for  the  Fifth  Act 
in  the  Drama  of  the  World's  Economic  Emancipation.  The  pre- 
ceding acts  have  had  for  their  heroes  the  soldier,  the  priest, 
the  statesman  and  the  lawgiver.  But  the  hero  of  the  Fifth  Act 
is  the  Business  Man.  This  is  the  modern  crusader  through  whom 
the  World  is  to  be  set  free  from  Egotism,  False  Pride,  Dreams 
of  Dominance  and  that  disease  of  nations  which  Dr.  Alexander 
Maltseff,  the  Russian  alienist,  calls  "  bellicose  psychosis,  verging 
on  paranoia." 

Co-operation  in  Business 

Ex-President  Taft  said,  recently,  in  this  city :  "  We  are  living, 
I  am  glad  to  say,  at  a  time  when  the  universal  brotherhood  of 
man  is  spreading.  I  say  this  now,  when  we  are  facing  that  ter- 
rible cataclysm  in  Europe.  I  think  this  last  generation  of  ma- 
terial expansion  and  this  chase  for  the  dollar  has  made  us  feel  a 
little  ashamed." 

The  other  day,  in  London,  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  the  great 
British  scientist,  said:  "  \^^e  are  just  barely  emerging  from  the 
ruthlessness  of  savage  competition."  If  competition  was  the 
keynote  of  the  Fourth  Act  in  the  Drama  of  Empire,  cooperation 
is  to  be  the  keynote  of  the  great  Fifth  Act,  with  its  declaration 
of  Industrial  Inter-dependence.  The  World  Federation  is  com- 
ing and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  is  to  be  made  a  reality  through 
the  cooperation  of  those  who  do  the  World's  work,  for  "  co- 
operation," says  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd,  "  is  business  democra- 
tizing itself,  garlanded,  dancing  and  set  to  music,  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments and  the  Golden  Rule." 

The  spirit  of  cooperation  is  in  the  air.  The  business  man  of 
to-day  needs  no  prophet  come  from  some  far-distant  country  to 
tell  him  that  the  really  worth-while  "  prizes  of  traffic  or  State  " 
are  not  "  won  through  force  or  shrewdness,  nor  by  deeds  un- 
done," but  rather  by  intelligent  cooperation  based  upon  Truth, 
business  honesty,  goods  of  quality,  service  and  scientific  efficiency. 

Signs  are  plentiful  on  every  hand  that  business  men  are 
placing  more  value  on  the  cooperative  idea.  The  great  problem 
which  confronts  every  manufacturer  is  distribution,  and  distribu- 
tion   comprehends    a    knowledge    of    how    to    effectively    break 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  99 

through  the  wall  of  opposition  which  usually  exists  between 
strangers.  'Men  who  cooperate  are  strangers  no  longer;  they  are 
friends,  and  friends  make  for  success. 

Business  men  who  think,  know  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  absolute  independence.  We  are  all  of  us  interdependent  in 
our  business  as  well  as  in  our  social  relations.  We  have  come 
to  set  far  greater  store  on  the  cultivation  of  those  liner  senti- 
ments which,  while  they  may  lie  dormant  in  some  individuals, 
need  only  to  be  appealed  to,  to  have  them  rise  up  in  majesty  to 
meet  our  own.  One  of  the  most  significant  signs  of  the  times 
is  the  increasing  number  of  organizations  designed  to  do  away 
with  "  savage  competition  "  and  bring  business  men  together  on 
more  of  a  cooperative  basis.  Indeed,  the  cooperative  idea  has 
of  late  been  making  wonderful  strides  in  America,  where,  as 
Tipper  points  out,  there  is  no  longer  such  a  thing  as  a  private 
action  in  modern  commerce.  The  new  humanism  in  business  de- 
mands that  "  he  who  would  be  the  greatest  of  all  must  be  the 
servant  of  all."  Capital  and  labor  are  coming  to  have  a  better 
understanding  of  each  other's  problems  because  of  this,  and 
service  is  now  recognized  as  a  fundamental  principle  of  prac- 
tical profits.  There  are  other  principles.  Some  day  they  will  be 
brought  together  into  standards  of  practice  for  every  line  of 
industrial  efifort  because  they  underlie  all  efficiency. 

E.  St.  Elmo  Lewis  has  written  a  book  on  the  application  of 
the  scientific  method  to  business  practice.  From  it  we  learn 
that  all  great  men  and  all  great  businesses  have  their  standards 
of  practice.  The  principles  of  Bushido,  simple  precepts  of  right 
thinking  and  noble  living,  have  made  Japan  what  it  is.  The 
Constitution  embodies  the  American  standards  of  practice.  Con- 
fucius formulated  for  the  Chinese  many  rules  of  conduct  that 
to-day  govern  you  and  me.  The  Ten  Commandments  are  the 
Standard  Practice  Instructions  of  Moses  to  his  people.  Marshall 
Field  was  one  of  the  greatest  definers  of  methods  in  the  merchan- 
dising business.  The  Wanamaker  store  policies  are  the  up-to- 
date  embodiment  of  John  Wanamaker's  Standards  of  Practice. 
What  American  is  not  more  or  less  familiar  with  Benjamin 
Franklin's  maxims  or  Stephen  Girard's  honor  standards  ? 
Thomas  A.  Edison  finds  time  to  formulate  rules  of  right  living. 
Andrew  Carnegie's  "  Empire  of  Business  "  is  filled  with  epi- 
grams. Hugh  Chalmers  talks  about  "  The  Ten  Best  Things  to 
Do  To-day."  Lincoln's  rule  "  of  the  people,  for  the  people  and 
by  the  people "  is  nothing  less  than  a  formula.  Roosevelt's 
speeches  are  full  of  rules.  How  many  of  you  have  not  yet  sub- 
scribed  to   Stevenson's   creeds   and   prayers  ?     Napoleon   was   a 


loo  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

manualizer — he  knew  how  to  codify  and  formulate.  John  H. 
Patterson  has  builded  a  city  out  of  standard  practice  instructions. 
Says  Lewis :  "  No  business  is  so  different  that  it  can  ignore 
the  laws  of  efficiency,  as  no  business  is  so  big  that  it  can  ignore 
the  law  of  society.  No  man  is  so  big  that  he  can  ignore  the 
law  and  any  man  who  says  he  is  above  the  law  is  a  fool." 

Defining   the  Standards  of  Practice 

To-night  we  are  to  consider  the  Standards  of  Practice  of 
the  Business  Press  of  America,  the  mouthpieces  of  that  invincible 
army  of  men  charged  with  the  reconstruction  of  the  World's  in- 
dustries and  the  rehabilitation  of  the  World's  commerce.  This 
is  our  share  of  the  white  man's  burden,  and,  as  our  chief  magis- 
trate has  told  us,  sympathy  for  mankind  qualifies  us  for  the 
work.  We  are  to  inquire  what  these  measures  of  value  are,  how 
they  have  been  evolved  and  as  to  whether  they  are  likely  to 
prove  enduring — for  the  task  of  those  who  march  under  them  is 
no  easy  one,  and  unless  they  be  practical  as  well  as  inspirational, 
they  are  likely  to  make  the  judicious  grieve  and  cause  the  un- 
skillful ones  to  laugh.  It  is  important  also  that  the  young  men, 
the  students  of  business  journalism,  should  know  the  story  of 
these  Standards  of  Practice  and  learn  how  they  work  out  in 
practical  application  to  the  business  of  publishing  class,  technical 
and  trade  journals. 

Briefly,  the  Standards  of  Practice  are  statements  of  facts 
in  the  publishing  business  and  are  designed  to  form  a  basis  for 
the  adjustment  and  regulation  of  that  business.  They  take  the 
place  of  a  measuring  rod.  They  have  been  evolved  from  the 
practical  business  experiences  of  hundreds  of  publishers  who 
lived  up  to  them,  even  before  they  had  them  formulated  in  their 
own  minds.  After  all,  value  is  an  attitude  of  mind.  Not  that 
trade  paper  publishers  are  any  better  than  magazine  publishers 
or  newspaper  publishers,  not  that  they  are  any  purer  or  have  a 
corner  on  the  Beatitudes ;  what  gave  the  charm  to  Eden  was  not 
the  absence  of  clothes,  but  the  presence  of  innocence.  Most  trade 
paper  men  are  naturally  honest. 

The  Evolution  of  the  Business  Press  Standards 

The  first  American  trade  paper,  the  "  Dry  Goods  Reporter 
and  Commercial  Gazette,"  published  in  1846,  had  sufficient  char- 
acter to  command  the  attention  of  no  less  a  personage  than 
William    M.    Thackeray.      Charles    T.    Root   applied   the    most 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  ibp 

modern  ideas  of  efficiency  and  service  in  the  "  Dry  Goods 
Economist "   twenty-five  years   back. 

The  "  Railway-Age  Gazette  "  allied  itself  on  the  side  of  busi- 
ness and  social  service  in  the  early  seventies.  E.  A.  Simmons, 
standing  in  this  Forum,  has  told  you  how  the  "  Railway  Age 
Gazette  "  achieved  its  success  with  Davy  Crockett's  motto  for  its 
.guiding  principle :  "  Be  sure  you're  right — then  go  ahead  !  " 

John  A.  Hill  needed  no  Standards  of  Practice  when  he  swung 
off  his  locomotive  cab  into  the  technical  press  field,  but  some  of 
the  things  which  he  did  naturally  have  been  improved  upon  and 
are  now  embodied  in  the  Trade  Press  Code  of  Ethics.  Mr.  Hill 
was  the  first  to  publish  his  circulation  in  every  issue.  He  was 
the  first  among  technical  publishers  to  issue  an  advertising  code, 
defining  what  can  and  cannot  be  done  in  advertising  space,  to 
the  end  that  all  copy  shall  be  constructive  and  truthful. 

H.  M.  Swetland  from  this  platform  has  told  that  the  secret 
of  his  remarkable  success  in  the  field  of  business  journalism  was 
to  be  found  in  the  application  of  the  idea  that  the  special  service 
of  a  class  paper  to  an  industry  was  to  raise  its  standards  of 
ethics,  thus  facilitating  the  disposition  of  its  products  through 
tried  and  well-recognized  business  principles. 

The  success  of  the  "  Iron  Age  "  is  due  to  the  fact  that  its 
founder,  John  Williams,  David  Williams  his  son,  and  W.  H. 
Taylor,  the  present  head  of  the  business,  lived  up  to  the  letter 
of  Article  I  in  the  Business  Press  Standards  of  Practice :  "  to 
consider  first  the  interests  of  the  subscriber." 

If  time  permitted,  it  would  be  easy  to  show  how  the  present 
high  efficiency  of  the  most  successful  trade  paper  publishing 
businesses  has  been  brought  about  not  by  clinging  to  the  idea  of 
perfection,  because  such  an  idea  is  not  involved  in  standardiza- 
tion, as  Morris  Llewellyn  Cooke  has  pointed  out ;  "  the  standard 
method  of  doing  anything  is  simply  the  best  method  that  can 
be  devised  at  the  time  the  standard  is  drawn."  The  Standards 
of  Practice  of  the  "  Dry  Goods  Economist,"  of  the  Hill  publica- 
tions, of  the  Simmons-Boardman  papers,  of  the  "  Iron  Age,"  are 
vastly  improved  to-day  over  what  they  were  twenty-five  years 
ago.  The  foundation  principles  of  these  papers  were  sound  and 
they  will  remain,  but  their  practices  have  evolved  into  the  higher 
standards  as  written  down  in  the  Code  of  Ethics  that  hangs 
here  on  the  wall  before  you. 


IC2'  LECTURES  IX  THE  FORU^I 

The  Declaration  of  Principles 

Including  within  its  interests  every  kind  of  business,  it  is 
easy  to  appreciate  how  vitally  industrial  journalism  is  concerned 
with  the  business  of  advertising.  When  the  Associated  Adver- 
tising Clubs  began  their  fight  for  truth  in  advertising,  the  Busi- 
ness Press  was  quick  to  appreciate  its  portent  and  eager  to  lend 
a  helping  hand.  Six  of  its  delegates  participated  in  the  formula- 
tion of  a  memorable  "  Declaration  of  Truth  Principles  "  at  the 
Baltimore  Convention  in  June,  1913.  In  September  of  the  same 
year  the  annual  convention  of  The  Federation  of  Trade  Press 
Associations  in  the  United  States  adopted  the  following  Declara- 
tion of  Trade  Press  Principles  : 

1.  We  believe  the  basic  principle  on  which  ever}^  trade  paper 
should  build  is  SERVICE — service  to  readers  and  service  to 
advertisers,  in  a  way  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  general 
public. 

2.  We  believe  in  TRUTH  as  applied  to  the  editorial,  news 
and   advertising  columns. 

3.  We  believe  in  the  utmost  frankness  regarding  circulation. 

4.  We  believe  the  highest  efficiency  of  the  Business  Press 
of  America  can  be  secured  through  CIRCULATIONS  OF 
QUALITY  rather  than  of  Quantity — that  character,  and  not 
mere  numbers,  should  be  the  criterion  by  which  the  value  of  a 
publication  should  be  judged. 

5.  We  believe  in  Cooperation  with  all  those  movements  in 
the  advertising,  printing,  publishing  and  m.erchandising  fields 
which  make  for  business  and  social  betterment. 

6.  We  believe  that  the  best  interests  of  manufacturers,  the 
Business  Press  and  consumers  can  be  advanced  through  a  greater 
interchange  of  facts  regarding  merchandise  and  merchandising 
and  to  this  end  invite  cooperation  by  manufacturers  and  con- 
sumers. 

7.  We  believe  that  the  logical  medium  to  carry  the  message 
of  the  manufacturer  directly  to  the  distributer  and  the  user  is  the 
Business  Press. 

8.  W^e  believe  that  while  many  advertising  campaigns  may 
profitably  employ  newspapers,  magazines,  outdoor  display,  etc., 
no  well-rounded  campaign  seeking  to  interest  the  consumer  or 
user  is  complete  without  the   Business  Press. 

9.  We  believe  in  cooperating  with  all  interests  which  are  en- 
gaged in  creative  advertising  work. 

10.  ^^'e  believe  that  business  papers  can  best  serve  their 
trades,  industries  or  professions  by  being  leaders  of  thought ;  by 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  103 

keeping  their  editorial  columns  independent  of  the  counting- 
room,  unbiased  and  unafraid ;  by  keeping  their  news  columns 
free  from  paid  reading  notices  and  puffery  of  all  kinds ;  by 
refusing  to  print  any  advertisement  which  is  misleading  or  which 
does  not  measure  up  to  the  highest  standards  of  business  in- 
tegrity. 

Standards  of  Advertising  Practice 

And  now  I  want  to  tell  you  of  a  remarkable  occurrence  at 
the  Toronto  Convention  of  the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs  of 
the  World  last  June,  where  were  gathered  advertising  men  from 
all  parts  of  the  world  to  study  advertising  problems.  This  con- 
vention at  one  session  brought  in  for  adoption  Standards  of 
Practice  for  every  one  of  the  fifteen  departments  of  advertising 
represented  at  the  meeting,  including  agricultural  publications, 
business  papers,  direct  advertising,  directories,  general  adver- 
tisers, magazines,  general  advertising  agents,  house  organs,  news- 
papers, outdoor  advertisers,  photo-engravers,  printing,  religious 
publications,  retailers  and  specialty  advertising  manufacturers. 

These  standards  represent  a  most  vital  development  in  the 
advertising  field  and  are  the  best  contribution  to  the  cause  of 
"  better  business  "  yet  made  by  the  Associated  Clubs.  They 
are  significant,  because  through  them  all,  like  a  silver  thread, 
runs  the  idea  of  reciprocity  and  cooperation.  There  is  no  jarring 
note.  Each  department  acknowledges  that  the  others  have  a 
legitimate  place  in  the  advertising  field,  and  that  while  there  may 
be  competition  there  can  also  be  cooperation. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  advertising  we  now  have 
Codes  of  Advertising  Ethics  by  means  of  which  the  members  of 
the  Associated  Clubs  can  gauge  their  own  conduct  and  also  that 
of  their  fellows. 

As  Chairman  Allen,  of  the  Programme  Committee,  has  ex- 
pressed it,  "  These  Standards  should  be  what  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments have  been  to  the  Christian  people  for  centuries." 
They  are  ideals  of  conduct.  While  they  may  never  be  lived  up 
to  in  toto,  perhaps,  by  any  single  practitioner  of  advertising,  they 
will,  nevertheless,  be  to  the  advertising  men  what  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments have  been  to  society — a  set  of  ideals  towards  which 
to  work — the  best  standards  of  right  action  now  attainable. 

I>et  me  read  you  the  preamble  which  introduced  these  stand- 
ards to  the  convention.     It  is  an  index  to  their  character : 

''  REALIZING  that  advertising  has  come  to  mean  service  to 
mankind,  and  that  reciprocity  is  the  greatest  force  in  promoting 
the  cause  of  human  brotherhood  and  the  world's  progress,  and 


104  LECTURES  IX  THE  FORUM 

BELIEVING  that  the  new  humanism  in  business  demands 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  all  men  are  interdependent  and  have 
international  responsibilities  which  can  be  best  conserved  by- 
setting  up  ideals  of  conduct,  and 

WISHING  TO  SECURE  TO  SOCIETY  a  Code  of  AD- 
VERTISING Ethics  by  means  of  which  the  members  of  each 
department  of  advertising  can  gauge  their  own  conduct  and  also 
that  of  their  fellows ; 

NOW,  THEREFORE,  we,  the  members  of  the  Associated 
Advertising  Clubs  of  the  World,  in  Tenth  Annual  Convention 
assembled  at  Toronto,  June  25,  1914,  do  acclaim  and  publish 
the  following  Standards  of  Practice  for  the  various  departments 
represented  at  this  meeting,  and  do  individually  pledge  ourselves 
to  cooperate  one  with  another  in  living  up  to  them  as  the  best 
Standards  of  Right  Action  now  attainable  for  all  those  engaged 
in  the  business  of  advertising." 

I  take  considerable  pride  in  the  fact  that  the  New  York 
Trade  Press  Association,  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to  be 
President,  formulated  the  original  set  of  standards  after  which 
were  patterned  the  standards  adopted  by  the  other  departments 
of  advertising  at  Toronto.  The  class,  technical  and  trade  jour- 
nals of  the  country^  form  the  Department  of  Business  Papers  of 
the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs.  This  is  the  original  Code  of 
Ethics  as  adopted  by  the  New  York  Trade  Press  Association : 

Standards  of  Practice  for  Business  Papers 

The  publisher  of  a  business  paper  should  dedicate  his  best 
efforts  to  the  cause  of  Business  and  Social  Service,  and  to  this 
end  should  pledge  himself: 

1.  To  consider,  first,  the  interests  of  the  subscriber. 

2.  To  subscribe  to  and  work  for  truth  and  honesty  in  all 
departments. 

3.  To  eliminate,  in  so  far  as  possible,  his  personal  opinions 
from  his  news  columns,  but  to  be  a  leader  of  thought  in  his 
editorial  columns,  and  to  make  his  criticisms  constructive. 

4.  To  refuse  to  publish  "puffs."  free  reading  notices  or 
paid  "  write-ups  " ;  to  keep  his  reading  columns  independent  of 
advertising  considerations,  and  to  measure  all  news  by  this 
standard:  "  Is  it  real  news?  " 

5.  To  decline  any  advertisement  which  has  a  tendency  to 
mislead  or  which  does  not  conform  to  business  integrity. 

6.  To  solicit  subscriptions  and  advertising  solely  upon  the 
merits  of  the  publication. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  105 

7.  To  supply  advertisers  with  full  information  regarding 
character  and  extent  of  circulation,  including  detailed  circulation 
statements  subject  to  proper  and  authentic  verification. 

8.  To  cooperate  with  all  organizations  and  individuals  en- 
gaged in  creative  advertising  work. 

9.  To  avoid  unfair  competition. 

10.  To  determine  what  is  the  highest  and  largest  function  of 
the  field  which  he  serves,  and  then  to  strive  in  every  legitimate 
way  to  promote  that  function. 

Analysing  the  Standards 

An  analysis  of  these  Standards  discovers  that  in  conception 
and  application  they  are  not  too  idealistic  to  be  both  wholesome 
and  efficient. 

The  publisher  of  a  business  paper  is  a  kind  of  modern  knight 
errant  who  rides  forth  with  "  I  serve,"  the  law  of  modern 
business,  emblazoned  on  his  shield.  Woodrow  Wilson  has  said, 
"  Profits  are  legitimate  only  when  they  come  from  service,"  and 
that  is  comprehended  in  the  preamble  to  our  Standards  of 
Practice.  How  it  works  out  is  indicated  by  the  success  of  the 
"  Electric  Railway  Journal "  in  its  efforts  to  promote  a  better 
understanding  between  the  electric  railway  companies  and  the 
public.  Last  year,  at  the  Convention  of  the  American  Electric 
Railway  Association,  the  policy  of  publicity  of  financial  opera- 
tions of  public  utility  companies  urged  by  the  "  Electric  Rail- 
way Journal  "  for  twenty-one  years  was  finally  approved  by 
the  adoption  by  the  Association  of  a  Code  of  Principles  in  which 
one  of  the  clauses  reads :  "  Full  and  frank  publicity  should  be 
the  policy  of  all  transportation  companies  to  the  end  that  proper 
information  may  be  available  to  the  investor  and  to  the  public." 
The  "  Railway  Age  Gazette  "  fought  and  won  its  "  Battle  of 
the  Gauges  "  for  public  policy  because  it  believed  Business  and 
Society  would  be  benefited  by  a  transcontinental  railway  gauge 
of  uniform  width.  This  paper  also  killed  the  Nicaragua  Canal 
grab  and  paved  the  way  for  the  Panama  Canal,  thus  saving  the 
country  from  committing  what  \^arilla,  the  French  engineer, 
said  would  have  proved  the  greatest  technical  error.  A  distinct 
service  for  humanity  performed  by  a  technical  paper! 

"  To  consider  first  the  interests  of  the  subscriber,"  means 
just  what  it  says.  There  should  be  no  quibbling  on  this  point. 
Sometimes  it  costs  real  money  to  maintain  this  attitude,  but  the 
only  safe  policy  is:  Subscribers  First! 

No.  2  means  simply  that  the  truth  principle  should  be  ap- 


io6  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

plied  to  all  departments  of  the  publishing  business — editorial, 
news,  advertising,  circulation — and  that  the  "  square  deal  "  policy 
should  apply  to  the  publisher's  dealings  with  his  employees  and 
the  merchants  with  whom  he  does  business. 

No.  3  would  seek  to  have  only  simple  statements  of  facts  in 
the  news  columns,  exceptions  being  made  in  the  case  of  expert 
opinions  or  propaganda  articles,  which  should  be  signed.  The 
editor  of  a  successful  business  paper  must  constantly  dwell  upon 
the  Heights — he  must  be  a  seer  and  a  prophet.  It  is  his  duty 
to  blaze  new  trails,  to  dream  practical  dreams,  to  lead  the  thought 
of  his  trade.  What  is  needed  most  to-day  in  the  trade  journal 
field  are  editorials  with  backbone ;  editorials  that  say  something 
and  that  stop  when  they've  said  it ;  editorials  that  are  unafraid, 
not  dictated  by  manufacturers  seeking  special  privilege ;  editorials 
that  call  a  spade  a  spade,  that  cry  out  against  the  exploitation 
of  the  dealer,  or  against  anything  that  would  close  the  door  of 
opportunity  to  the  youth  of  our  land ;  editorials  that  attack  trade 
abuses,  unfair  practices,  misrepresentation  and  all  the  various 
tricks  and  devices  that  still  persist  in  high  and  low  places ;  edi- 
torials that  expose  the ' charlatan  and  the  bounder;  editorials 
written  by  men  having  warm,  rich  American  blood  in  their  veins, 
and  that  are  full  of  constructive  criticism;  editorials  that  con- 
sider, first,  the  interests  of  the  general  public  and  the  dealer;  edi- 
torials that  never  cringe,  fawn,  ape,  behave  like  lick-spittles  nor 
truckle  to  the  petty  vanities  of  those  seeking  to  prostitute  the 
dealer  to  unworthy  ends ;  editorials  that  our  subscribers'  sons 
ought  to  read  if  they  want  their  boys  to  keep  up  the  best  tradi- 
tions of  the  business ;  not  the  jelly-fish  kind,  not  the  spineless 
variety  affected  by  some  papers  that  are  afraid  to  call  their  souls 
their  own,  but  the  clean-cut,  wholesome  opinions  of  the  leaders 
of  the  best  thought  in  the  world  of  business. 

No.  4  aims  to  eliminate  the  write-up  nuisance  no  matter  in 
what  form  it  shows  its  head.  Something  for  nothing  is  worth 
exactly  what  you  pay  for  it — nothing !  No  advertiser  should  have 
any  respect  for  a  publication  which  will  give  him  something  for 
nothing.  No  self-respecting  reader  will  continue  to  subscribe  to 
a  publication  which  seeks  to  deceive  him  by  palming  off  as  real 
news  blatant  pufifs  for  regular  or  prospective  advertisers. 

Sometimes  free  publicity  in  the  news  columns  is  sought  for 
what  appears  to  be  a  worthy  object.  A  safe  rule  to  follow 
is  this :  "  If  the  publicity  sought  is  in  the  nature  of  a  social 
service,  for  the  good  of  the  general  public  or  the  trade  as  a 
whole,  and  not  to  boost  some  private  enterprise,  or  for  personal 
gain,  then   it   is   all   right  to  print  it.     Otherwise,   it   should   be 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  107 

paid  for  at  regular  space  rates."  Mr.  Taylor,  in  his  lecture  on 
"  The  News  Service  of  the  Trade  and  Technical  Press,"  fur- 
nished admirable  definitions  of  what  constitutes  real  news  in 
the  field  of  industrial  journalism. 

No.  5  means  "  Truth  in  Advertising,"  which  I  will  take  up 
further  along. 

No.  6  was  not  intended  to  frown  upon  the  giving  of  books 
or  other  premiums  pertinent  to  the  trade,  or,  for  that  matter, 
unrelated,  so  long  as  the  subscriber  pays  substantially  the  ad- 
vertised price  of  the  paper  and  wants  it  for  itself,  independent  of 
the  premium.  This,  however,  is  a  moot  question,  many  pub- 
lishers believing  that  the  best  practice  contraindicates  the  use 
of  all  premiums.  To  solicit  advertising  on  any  other  basis  than 
the  merits  of  the  publication — the  facts  in  the  case — is  so  clearly 
obsolete  that  it  would  seem  quite  unnecessary  to  write  it  down. 
It  just  isn't  done,  in  the  best  publishing  families. 

No.  7  means  that  the  advertiser  has  a  right  to  know  what 
he  is  getting  for  his  money  and  this,  of  course,  is  not  objected 
to  by  any  honest  publisher.  There  is,  however,  considerable 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  how  the  information  should  be  fur- 
nished. A  goodly  number  of  publishers  have  decided  that  mem- 
bership in  the  Audit  Bureau  of  Circulations  is  the  most  effective 
way  to  answer  all  circulation  questions.  This  is  a  cooperative 
organization  of  advertisers,  agents  and  publishers  undertaking  to 
supply  verified  circulation  statements  from  periodical  audits. 

No.  8  means,  lend  a  hand,  wherever  possible,  to  the  cause  of 
Better  Business  and  Truth  in  Advertising.  The  trade  paper 
man,  like  men  in  many  other  lines  of  business,  is  likely  to  become 
narrow  and  insular,  from  too  much  introspection.  "  He  does 
not  know  his  England  who  only  England  knows."  Every  busi- 
ness man  needs  to  cultivate  breadth  of  thought.  It  will  enable 
him  better  to  understand  his  fellows  and  their  problems  and 
throw  more  light  upon  his  own.  The  publisher  of  a  business 
paper  should  be  ever  ready  to  assist  in  furthering  all  legitimate 
interests  in  advertising  and  promoting  a  better  understanding 
between  the  various  branches  of  the  business,  as  well  as  be 
anxious  to  aid  in  stamping  out  unfair  methods  and  fraudulent 
practices. 

No.  9  means,  "  Practice  all  this  in  your  own  business  rela- 
tionships." 

No.  10  seems  to  define  itself.  It  is  really  a  resume  of  what 
has  gone  before.     It  places  the  final  emphasis  on  Service. 


io8  LECTURES  IX  THE  FORUM 

Truth  in  Advertising 

The  trade  press  Standards  of  Practice  have  a  broader  sig- 
nificance than  just  Codes  of  Ethics  for  publishers  of  business 
papers.  Consider,  if  you  will,  their  relation  to  the  world-wide 
movement  for  truth  in  advertising  and  particularly  the  relation- 
ship which  they  bear  to  the  Standards  for  the  other  departments 
of  advertising  media  represented  in  the  National  Commission  of 
the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs  of  the  \\'orld,  for  which  they 
served  as  a  model. 

Xow  that  the  National  Comm.ission  has  been  organized  to 
do  business,  the  importance  of  the  "  Standards  of  Practice " 
adopted  at  Toronto  will  become  increasingly  apparent. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  in  these  standards,  and  for  the 
first  time,  the  ideals  of  truth-telling  in  all  forms  of  advertising 
have  been  given  formal  definition  in  concrete  rules.  No  other 
form  of  business  in  the  United  States  has  anything  comparable 
with  this  lucid,  candid,  sensible  formulation  of  the  permissible 
and  the  forbidden  in  trade  and  profit  making.  It  was  never  ex- 
pected that  these  various  departmental  standards  would  be  lived 
up  to  literally.  I  would  repeat  that  they  are  ideals  of  conduct. 
They  may  require  definition  in  some  instances.  Undoubtedly 
they  can  be  improved  upon.  How  to  define  them,  how  to  apply 
them,  should  be  made  the  subject  of  careful  study  by  each  de- 
partment. I  believe  the  time  is  coming  when  no  man  will  be 
tolerated  in  any  department  included  in  the  National  Commis- 
sion who  has  flagrantly  violated  the  standards  of  practice  of 
that  department.  I  also  believe  that  in  the  future  it  will  not  be 
possible  for  unfair  competition  to  thrive  in  any  department  of 
advertising,  because  of  the  opportunity  off'ered  to  correct  it 
through  better  understanding  in  the  National  Commission,  sit- 
ting as  congress,  not  as  a  court. 

If  it  is  true,  as  Hugh  Chalmers  says,  that  the  greatest  cause 
of  advertising  waste  lies  in  the  fact  that  there  is  still  too  much 
"  bunk "  in  advertising,  the  Standards  of  Practice  present  an 
opportunity  to  ever}^  advertising  man  to  correct  the  evil  at  the 
source — in  his  own  department.  No  department  can  be  pure 
in  its  purpose  and  strong  in  its  battle  for  the  right  and  all  ad- 
vertising not  be  made  purer  and  stronger  thereby.  This  way  lies 
the  duty  of  every  soldier  in  the  Army  of  the  Common  Good  in 
Advertising :  Study  your  Standards  of  Practice  and  ally  yourself 
with  the  cause  of  Truth  in  Advertising,  because  that's  what 
ever}'  one  of  the  departmental  codes  means  when  boiled  down. 

And.  what  is  truth  in  advertising,  do  a-ou  ask?     lohn  Keats 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  109 

defines  truth  in  these  words :  "  Beauty  is  truth,  truth  beauty,  that 
is  all  ye  know  on  earth  and  all  ye  need  to  know." 

In  the  Business  Gospel,  according  to  James  Schermerhorn, 
"  advertising  is  the  light  that  saves  and  serves."  Truth  in  ad- 
vertising is  beauty  translated  into  terms  of  Social  Service. 

Advertising,  like  Caesar's  wife,  should  be  above  suspicion. 
The  great  task  confronting  the  servants  of  advertising  is  to  ever 
keep  it  so.  "  It's  only  an  advertisement,"  says  the  man  in  the 
street,  "and  all  advertising  is  besmirched."  Who  said  that? 
Richard  H.  Waldo,  the  man  who  originated  the  "  New  York 
Tribune's "  money-back  advertising  guarantee,  the  most  sig- 
nificant sign  of  the  advertising  year  of  1914-1915. 

How  to  make  all  advertising  believable  ?  This  is  the  problem 
to  which  the  members  of  that  great  body  of  serious-minded 
business  men  who  compose  the  Associated  Advertising  Clubs  of 
the  World  have  been  addressing  themselves  for  a  number  of 
years  past.  Manufacturers,  advertisers,  advertising  agents,  pub- 
lishers, promoters  of  all  kinds  of  advertising  media,  consumers — 
all  are  mightily  concerned  in  this  great  battle  for  truth  in  ad- 
vertising. 

Sometimes  we  hear  men  speak  of  life  as  a  game.  It  is  a 
favorite  word.  Then  there  is  "  the  newspaper  game  "  and  "  the 
advertising  game."  But  life  isn't  a  game ;  it's  an  opportunity  for 
self-expression,  a  glorious  opportunity  where  every  man  is  given 
twenty-four  hours  in  the  day  to  do  with  as  he  will.  King  George, 
Kaiser  Wilhelm,  Morgan,  Rockefeller,  Edison  get  the  same  as  you 
and  I — twenty-four  hours,  no  more,  no  less.  We  all  stand  equal 
before  the  Law  of  the  Universe.  You  can  waste  your  precious 
allotment  if  you  wish,  but  to-morrow  you  are  given  another 
twenty-four  hours  just  the  same.  The  wheel  turns  and  Time 
weighs  out  the  sands  in  the  same  proportion  to  the  wise  and  the 
foolish.  Did  you  ever  think  of  that,  you  men  who  are  students 
of  journalism?  Isn't  it  a  solemn  thought?  Twenty-four  hours — 
take  them  or  leave  them.  But  if  you  take  them  and  use  them  in 
the  study  of  the  beautiful,  if  you  translate  them  into  terms  of 
truth — what  a  heritage !  No  game  can  equal  the  quest  of  the 
beautiful!    There  is  no  joy  like  the  pure  joy  of  service. 

The  Transmutation  of  Advertising 

Consider,  if  you  will,  what  advertising  was  and  what  it  has 
become. 

A  woman,  wearing  an  anxious  expression,  called  at  an  insur- 
ance office  one  morning. 


no  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

"  I  understand."  she  said.  "  that  for  five  dollars  I  can  insure 
my  house  for  a  thousand  dollars  in  your  company." 

"  Yes,"  replied  the  agent.  "  that  is  right.  If  your  house  burns 
down  we  pay  you  one  thousand  dollars." 

"  And,"  continued  the  woman,  anxiously,  "  do  you  make  any 
inquiries  as  to  the  origin  of  the  fire?  " 

"  Certainly,"  was  the  prompt  reply.  "  we  make  the  most 
careful  inquiries,  madam." 

"  Oh !  " — and  she  turned  to  leave  the  office — "  I  thought  there 
was  a  catcli  in  it  somewhere." 

The  leaders  in  the  movement  for  clear  white  honesty  in  adver- 
tising are  chieiiy  concerned  with  taking  the  "  catch  ''  out  of 
advertising.  Times  have  changed  since  the  days  w'hen  P.  T. 
Barnum  was  considered  a  great  advertiser.  Somehow,  old  P.  T. 
has  lost  caste.  A  few  years  back  George  Cohan  wrote  some 
musical  comedy  verses  in  which  he  acclaimed  the  showman-faker 
after  this  fashion : 

P.  T.  Barnum  had  the  right  idea, 

Barnum  had  the  whole  works  tied. 

Every  place  he  went 

He  used  to  pitch  a  tent — 

The  Rubes  that  saw  the  tent  go  up 

Would  wonder  what's  inside. 

"  Oh,  there's  one  born  ever)-  minute  in  the  day," 
Barnum  used  to  say, 
"  The  wisest  is  the  jay, 
He'll  always  hold  his  tongue 
To  see  the  other  fellow  stung — " 

Barnum  had  them  wised  up, 
Barnum  had  them  sized  up — 
Barnum  had  the  right  idea ! 
Again : 

Barnum  had  them  doped  out, 
Standing  up  and  roped  out — 
Barnum  had  the  right  idea ! 

Barnum  was  mistaken — we  know  that  now.  It  isn't  true  that 
there's  one  born  every  minute.  People  are  born  honest — what 
they  become  is  largely  a  matter  of  w^hat  they  are  told,  what  they 
see  and  what  they  believe.  They  have  a  right  to  be  told  the 
truth.     Let's  tell  it  to  them. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  iii 

Swatting  the  Lie 

It  has  been  said  that  honest  advertising  amounts  to  approx- 
imately eighty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  total  volume  in  this  country. 
How  to  deal  with  the  other  twelve  per  cent.  ?  "  Here  is  a  task 
for  all  that  a  man  has  of  fortitude  and  delicacy."  The  attitude 
of  the  National  Vigilance  Committee  of  the  Associated  Adver- 
tising Clubs  of  the  World  is  to  approach  the  question  with  rough 
courage  and  a  goodly  measure  of  moral  suasion.  You  know,  in 
advertising  there  is  everything  in  attitude — the  right  approach. 
Every  man's  duty  requires  that  he  shall  swat  a  lie  when  he  sees 
it,  otherwise  he  suffers  actual  loss  himself.  But  be  careful  of 
the  approach.  If  you're  not  careful  you  will  cause  a  feeling  of 
uncertainty  very  much  like  that  which  the  congregation  had  when 
the  minister  announced  that  his  next  Sunday  sermon  would  have 
for  its  topic,  "  Hell,  and  Who  Will  be  There  '" ;  whereupon  two 
bankers,  three  lawyers  and  the  local  editor  wrote  him  letters 
threatening  to  sue  him  if  he  mentioned  any  names.  It's  always 
best  to  try  moral  suasion  first.  If  this  fails,  then  the  exposure 
must  be  swift  and  fearless. 

No  better  illustration  of  the  need  for  education  in  the  new 
conception  of  business  honesty  in  relation  to  advertising  can  be 
instanced  than  the  success  which  has  been  achieved  by  the  pro- 
duction in  New  York  of  the  play,  "  It  Pays  to  Advertise."  Al- 
though it  is  a  farce,  it  is  calculated  to  leave  a  very  harmful 
impression  on  the  minds  of  the  general  public.  It  is  nothing 
more  than  a  modern  application  of  the  old  P.  T.  Barnum  idea.  It 
impressed  me  as  a  grave  libel  on  what  has  latterly  become  a 
serious  profession.  I  think  the  time  has  gone  by  when  adver- 
tising should  be  treated  flippantly  in  print  or  on  the  stage.  We 
are  living  a  long  way  after  Colonel  Mulberry  Sellers. 

Of  course,  the  play  is  a  farce,  which  nobody  is  supposed  to 
take  seriously.  It  tells  the  story  of  the  efiforts  of  a  soap  king 
to  make  a  business  man  out  of  his  idle  and  shiftless  son.  He 
conspires  with  his  attractive  young  woman  secretary  to  inveigle 
the  boy  into  a  business  deal.  The  boy  and  the  girl  procure  a 
soap  formula  out  of  an  old  cook  book,  and,  aided  and  abetted 
by  a  theatrical  press  agent  as  advertising  man,  set  up  an  opposi- 
tion soap  factory — on  paper — with  "  Thirteen  Soap — unlucky  for 
dirt "  as  their  leading  brand.  They  have  no  serious  intention  of 
making  any  soap.  Indeed,  they  plan  to  buy  it  from  the  Soap  King 
himself  for  three  cents  a  cake,  sell  it  to  the  jobbers  at  sixty  cents 
a  cake  and  to  the  consumer  for  a  dollar.  Their  object  is,  through 
extensive  advertising,  to  frighten  the  old  man  into  buying  them 


112  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

out.  The  plan  succeeds,  the  old  man  is  forced  to  pay  an 
enormous  price  for  the  trade-mark  and  good-will  of  a  business 
that  doesn't  exist,  and  in  the  end  announces  that  he  is  thoroughly 
converted  to  the  gospel  of  advertising.  The  conclusion  that  "  it 
pays  to  advertise  "  is  inevitable. 

Of  course  it  is  farcical  to  suppose  that  Marshall  Field  or 
Gimbel  Brothers  would  buy  staggering  quantities  of  anybody's 
soap  directly  the  advertising  appears — no  matter  how  convincing 
— and  that's  what  happens  in  the  play.  Nevertheless,  the  ques- 
tion is,  how  many  people  will  not  leave  the  theater  with  the  idea 
firmly  fixed  in  their  minds  that  Uneeda  Biscuits,  Victor  Talking 
]\'Iachines,  Heinz'  Pickles,  Gillette  Razors,  etc..  are  absurdly  over- 
priced because  they  are  advertised  ?     As  "  Printer's  Ink  "  says : 

"  There  is  much  talk  in  the  play  of  advertised  goods  and  the 
fortunes  made  out  of  advertising.  In  dramatizing  his  farcical 
fact,  the  author  has  introduced  arguments  calculated  to  win  the 
admiration  of  a  certain  class  of  publisher  and  advertising  man — ■ 
chiefly  those  who  delight  to  emphasize  '  the  superficial,  the  froth 
and  bunk  in  advertising ' ;  the  very  things  the  serious  men  in 
'  the  truth  in  advertising '  movement  have  been  working  for 
years  to  eliminate." 

The  Spirit  of  Truth 

"  Advertising  is  no  longer  the  slick  gold-brick  game  it  used 
to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  unscrupulous  fakers  of  the  old  school. 
Advertising  never  did  and  never  w^ill  make  a  lasting  success  of 
an  unworthy  business  built  on  a  false   foundation." 

Young  men  coming  into  the  advertising  and  publishing  busi- 
ness cannot  be  told  too  often  that  truth  in  advertising  compre- 
hends an  accurate  statement  of  the  facts  in  each  case  as  well  as 
a  nice  regard  for  good  taste  in  the  choice  of  English,  and  in 
the  display  factors.  But  behind  these  concrete  things  there  is 
the  Spirit  of  Truth  with  which  every  beginner  needs  to  be 
imbued.  He  must  be  made  to  understand  that  the  Spirit  of 
Truth  is  Beauty,  that  the  beautiful  thing  is  the  thing  w^orth 
while  because  it  is  usually  the  most  useful ;  that  the  beautiful 
is  destined  to  survive  while  ugliness  must  perish. 

Truth  in  advertising,  then,  comprehends,  first,  a  passionate 
devotion  to  those  ideals  of  conduct  which  inspire  men  to  think 
noble  thoughts,  to  do  things  worth  doing,  with  a  steadfast  fidelity 
to  order  and  law.  It  also  comprehends  a  knowledge  of  the  beau- 
tiful, the  true  in  life,  in  nature,  and  the  application  of  the  truth 
principle  to  any  form  of  publicity  which  has  for  its  object,  "  caus- 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  113 

ing  another  to  know,  to  remember,  to  do,"  an  excellent  definition 
of  advertising.  Do  this  without  the  slightest  sacrifice  of  taste  or 
dignity  and  you'll  be  a  success. 

First  to  Last,  the  Truth 

Written  high  on  the  Triumphal  Arch  of  the  West  in  the  Court 
of  the  Universe  at  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition  is  this  big 
thought  by  Confucius : 

"  They  who  know  the  truth  are  not  equal  to  those  who 
love  it." 

It  isn't  enough  to  know  the  truth — one  must  live  it  if  he 
would  acquire  merit  in  China. 

If  it  is  true  that  no  business  is  ever  more  than  the  lengthened 
shadow  of  one  man,  then  in  the  business  of  advertising,  and  in 
the  field  of  business  journalism,  as  in  other  lines  of  industrial 
effort,  it  is  the  men  that  count,  and  it  is  most  important  that 
all  of  you  who  are  approaching  this  field  should  realize  that 
without  character  yourself  you  will  never  be  more  than  sounding 
brass  or  tinkling  cymbal  in  the  advertising  and  publishing  pro- 
fession. And  in  the  building  of  character,  if  the  emphasis  is 
placed  upon  Truth  it  can  later  on  be  translated  into  terms  of 
Service  that  will  spell  Success. 

Carl  Schurz  has  compared  ideals  to  the  stars ;  "  you  will  not 
succeed  in  touching  them  with  your  hands,  but  like  the  seafaring 
man  on  the  desert  of  waters  you  choose  them  as  your  guides, 
and  following  them  you  reach  your  destiny." 

Such  are  The  Standards  of  Practice  in  their  relation  to  the 
cause  of  Truth  in  Advertising.  Business  press  efficiency  must  not 
be  "  too  materialistic,  prosaic  or  utilitarian."  The  World  of 
Business,  the  Business  Press,  needs  more  young  men  with  ideals. 
And  when  they  come  to  sit  in  this  Forum,  which  I  would  liken  to 
the  Interpreter's  House,  shall  we  not  say  to  them : 

"  Whatsoever  things  are  true, 
Whatsoever  things  are  honest. 
Whatsoever  things  are  just, 
Whatsoever  things  are  pure, 
Whatsoever  things  are  lovely. 
Whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report; 
If  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on 
these  things." 


The  Making  of  a  Trade  Paper 

Eighth  Lecture   in  the   Forum  in  Industrial  Journalism  at  the 
Xew  York  University,  Alay  19,  191 5 

By  JOHX  CLYDE  OSWALD 

Editor,  The  "  American  Printer  "  ; 

President,  The  Federation  of  Trade  Press  Associations 

in  the  L^nited  States. 

In  the  first  place,  let  us  arrive  at  an  answer  to  the  question, 
What  is  a  trade  paper?  Not  so  many  years  ago  it  was  a  somewhat 
indefinite  term.  There  were  definite  ideas  as  to  what  was  meant 
by  the  words  "  newspaper  "  and  "  magazine,"'  but  when  "  trade 
papers  "  were  referred  to  practically  anything  in  between  was 
apt  to  be  meant.  If  you  will  look  over  the  list  of  the  members 
of  the  first  organizations  of  the  trade  press,  you  will  find  that 
they  included  agricultural  publications,  medical  journals,  financial 
papers,  what  are  even  yet  somewhat  vaguely  designated  as  class 
journals  and  of  course  those  still  correctly  grouped  as  trade  and 
technical  papers.  New  lines  of  definition  are  in  process  of 
formation,  and  although  the  terms  are  not  yet  exactly  descriptive 
in  the  minds  of  the  general  public,  most  of  us  in  the  publishing 
business  have  narrowed  our  ideas  to  a  point  upon  which  we  are 
generally  agreed,  that  a  trade  paper  is  a  periodical  dealing  with 
a  field  which  concerns  itself  particularly  with  buying  and  selling 
of  a  commodity  of  some  kind,  and  a  technical  paper  one  which 
deals  with  mechanical  production  in  a  special  field.  Another 
term  has  lately  come  into  use  which  seems  to  find  considerable 
favor  among  publishers — that  of  the  "  business  press."  It  is  not 
quite  so  exact  in  that  while  both  trade  and  technical  papers  are, 
generally  speaking,  published  to  promote  business  enterprises,  the 
objection  of  the  technical  paper  to  being  classified  under  the 
word  "  trade  "  Avould  seem  to  apply  also  to  the  word  "  business." 
Also,  the  term  "  business  press  "  could  as  well  include  the  financial 
papers,  which  at  one  time  were  grouped  under  "  trade  papers," 
but  which  gradually  became  separated  from  them. 

114 


INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM  115 

So  far  as  this  talk  is  concerned,  however,  whatever  there  may 
be  of  value  in  it  will  apply  to  all  these  divisions. 

There  are  about  six  hundred  publications  in  the  United  States 
that  under  the  narrowest  definition  could  properly  be  classed  as 
trade  and  technical  papers.  Using  the  wider  application  of  the 
term,  the  number  would  probably  increase  itself  to  about  a 
thousand.  Trade  and  technical  papers  vary  in  value  from  prob- 
ably a  dozen  that  would  pay  a  high  rate  of  interest  on  an  invest- 
ment of  a  million  dollars  each  down  to  those  which  in  a  bank 
statement  would  be  classed  among  the  other  liabilities.  Probably 
some  of  the  students  of  this  university,  when  they  shall  have 
gone  forth  to  take  up  their  life  work  along  journalistic  lines, 
under  the  shifting  which  comes  with  the  performance  of  the  daily 
task,  will  find  themselves  engaged  in  some  branch  of  trade  press 
work.  Eventually  they  will  come  to  that  point  which  is  the 
proper  goal  of  a  young  man's  ambition — to  get  into  business  for 
himself.  The  sure  way  is  to  go  gradually  along  step  by  step  until 
the  final  elevation  is  reached  where,  we  have  Mr.  Daniel  Web- 
ster's word  for  it,  "  To  Let "  signs  are  always  abundantly  in 
evidence. 

Some,  however,  are  apt  to  become  impatient  at  the  slowness 
of  the  progress  along  the  road  leading  to  the  top,  and  will  look 
about  for  short  cuts  to  the  highest  positions  in  some  particular 
field  of  trade  press  activity. 

Two  courses  are  open.  One  is  to  secure  control  of  an  estab- 
lished journal  that  does  not  measure  up  to  its  opportunities,  but 
could  with  infusion  of  enterprise  and  energy  be  made  to  do  so — 
and  there  are  many  such — and  the  other  is  to  start  a  new  journal. 
Both  courses  will  be  found  to  be  beset  with  difificulties  that  do 
not  properly  come  within  the  scope  of  this  treatment  of  a  phase 
of  trade  paper  publishing.  They  are  not  necessarily  to  be  ob- 
jected to  because  the  way  is  not  easy,  however.  "  Difficulties 
are  the  things  that  show  what  men  are."  If  you  should  find 
a  field  which  is  not  difficult,  stay  out  of  it.  What  little  chance  of 
success  it  offers  will  not  be  worth  while. 

Whichever  of  the  two  courses  is  decided  upon,  the  question 
of  the  mechanical  construction  of  the  periodical  will  be  one  of 
the  first  to  come  up  for  consideration.  That  such  will  be  the 
case  with  a  new  publication  is  of  course  obvious.  That  it  will 
be  likewise  the  case  with  an  old  publication  into  which  new  life 
needs  to  be  injected  is  almost  as  certain.  I  have  never  yet  seen 
an  unsuccessful  trade  paper  that  was  typographically  correct. 

At  one  time  all  trade  publications,  in  the  matter  of  size  of 
pages,  were  of  the  "  broadside  "  variety.     Gradually  the  size  of 


ii6  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

the  page  grew  smaller.  In  the  years  of  the  great  prosperity  of 
the  leading  popular  magazines,  their  size,  which  approximated 
seven  by  ten  inches,  was  looked  upon  as  probably  the  one  at 
which  eventually  all  publications  would  arrive.  Magazine  pub- 
lishing has  not  lately  been  a  sure  method  to  financial  success, 
however,  and  in  casting  about  for  new  methods  of  improvement 
many  of  the  magazines  have  changed  to  a  larger  form,  one  of 
the  reasons  being  that  it  permits  inclusion  of  reading  matter  in 
the  advertising  pages,  thereby  directing  the  attention  of  the  reader 
to  them  for  reasons  other  than  the  advertisements  themselves. 

The  size  of  the  trade  paper  page  now  most  prevailing  is  9  x  12 
inches,  giving  a  type  page  7  x  10  inches.  On  the  "  American 
Printer  "  we  make  the  type  page  6^  x  10  inches,  our  reason  for 
choosing  that  particular  size  being  that  6^  inches  is  41  pica  ems, 
giving  opportunity  for  the  division  of  the  page  into  two  columns 
of  20  ems  each,  and  three  columns  of  13  ems  each,  with  an  equal 
space  between  the  columns  in  both  cases. 

Early  among  the  problems  in  periodical  production  comes  the 
choice  of  a  printer.  A  wide  range  is  offered.  It  is  open  to  the 
publisher  to  pay  almost  any  price  he  desires  for  his  printing,  just 
as  it  is  open  to  him  in  purchasing  his  luncheon  to  patronize 
restaurants  where  the  charge  varies  from  twenty-five  cents  to 
a  dollar  or  anything  between.  Too  often  for  the  good  of  trade 
journalism,  the  lowest  price  printer  gets  the  job. 

Estimates  on  a  job  of  printing  usually  vary,  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest,  about  fifty  per  cent.  Aly  experience  leads  me  to  be- 
lieve that  the  service  rendered  usually  varies  in  about  the  same  de- 
gree.   In  other  words,  the  publisher  gets  about  what  he  pays  for. 

Printing  as  a  business  ranks  sixth  among  the  great  American 
industries.  In  point  of  financial  returns  it  ranks  eighteenth.  This, 
you  will  agree,  is  a  wide  divergence.  Printers  are  not  money- 
makers. The  house  which  I  represent  publishes  a  book  entitled 
"  How  to  Make  Money  in  the  Printing  Business."  At  a  dinner 
in  New  York  I  once  introduced  the  author  of  the  book  to  Mr. 
Elbert  Hubbard.  Mr.  Hubbard  said,  "  I  am  glad  to  meet  the 
author  of  '  How  to  Make  Money  in  the  Printing  Business,'  the 
grandest  work  of  fiction  ever  written." 

Unfortunately,  there  sometimes  exists  between  the  publisher 
and  the  printer  a  spirit  of  antagonism  rather  than  of  good-will. 
Andrew  Lang,  the  famous  essayist,  once  made  the  remark  that 
although  himself  a  Briton  and  mindful  of  tlie  fact  that  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  was  Britain's  enemy,  he  respected  the  great  French- 
man's memory  because  he  once  shot  a  publisher.  Such  an  attitude 
is  often  regrettably  that  of  the  publisher  toward  the  printer. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 


117 


The  rock  upon  which  the  relations  between  the  publisher  and 
the  printer  often  come  to  grief  is  found  in  the  charges  for  author's 
alterations  and  holding  the  press.  About  the  only  thing  the 
printer  has  to  sell  is  service,  and  he  must  sell  it  by  the  hour.  His 
hours  are  of  two  kinds — productive,  by  which  is  meant  those 
directly  applied  to  particular  jobs,  and  non-productive  hours, 
devoted  to  such  indirect  processes  as  supervision,  proofreading, 
distribution  of  type,  etc.  In  order  to  determine  his  cost  per  hour, 
the  printer  must  divide  the  total  cost  of  all  the  time  by  the  num- 


I  RD      YEAR 


Paper  Trade  Journal 


iZ       Paboks    fjs„     ,   TRAJN  SMrrH  COMPANY 


Cmm  /sij"  'fisr 


i  aiCn  KE  KSRII 


JOHN  H.  LYON  ft  CO   be 


UNEN    RAG. 


F.  BREDT  &  CO 


COLORED  S^^ 

TISSUES-'-r;--, 


TOFTE 

Bicciclicd  Sulphili: 


"™ ""'  ■"  '     ASBESTINE  PULP 


PAPER  STOCK.  RAGS.  ETC  | 


^"■^^-^«^^^  ■ 

Mmxmub^^k 

Vu-LKX*;                         NE*'   VOKK,  SArtlRUHV   WLV   Jf.,  UH                        Na  .'I             1 

smomjAmm  bank 

c^u           -     \,m,Kii 

WiscoNMM  National 
Bank 

OF  miLWAUKEE 

Ite  Halofal  P«tJ<liHi  nlHnlui 

Mercanb'teNationalBank 

MtTwntfc  Trust  Owipany 

'•~SiSssS'~""    (i^^  (Antral  1SViKs3r 

(No.  i) — How  not  to  do  it.    ■ 

ber  of  hours  of  productive  time.  Having  made  his  calculations, 
he  must  base  the  operations  of  his  plant  upon  them.  Every  hour 
must  be  accounted  for.  That  is  why  he  must  charge  when  a 
press  is  temporarily  stopped  through  the  publisher's  orders  to  stop 
it,  and  why  he  must  charge  for  the  tinie  spent  in  making  changes 
caused  by  alterations  from  the  copy  as  originally  put  into  type. 

Sometimes  the  publisher  seeks  relief  from  disagreements  with 
the  printer  over  printing  charges  by  putting  in  his  own  printing 
plant,  or  at  least  his  own  composing  room.  Thereafter  it  costs 
him  just  as  much,  and  in  nine  times  out  of  ten  more,  but  he  is 
not  constantly  made  aware  of  the  fact,  and  is  therefore  happy. 
Why  should  we  worry  over  the  things  we  do  not  know? 

We  shall  now  have  some  stereopticon  pictures  showing  various 
typographic  arrangements.  My  first  is  an  illustration  of  how  not 
to  do  it  (No.  i).  Here  are  the  cover  pages  of  two  trade  papers  on 
which  you  will  note  that  the  space  is  divided  among  small  adver- 
tisements.   Such  advertisements  are  seldom  well  displayed,  infre- 


ii8 


LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 


quently  changed,  and  they  detract  rather  than  add  to  the  appear- 
ance of  a  cover-page.  My  behef  is  that  the  front  cover  page  is 
the  most  vakiable  in  the  book  and  that  it  is  too  valuable  to  sell. 
It  is  worth  more  to  the  publisher  than  it  could  possibly  be  to 
the  advertiser.  Further,  I  doubt  if  the  publication  which  sells 
its  front  cover  pages  adds  very  much  to  its  revenue  by  so  doing. 
The  advertisers  whose  announcements  appear  on  the  front  pages 
would  use  inside  spaces  if  they  had  to  do  so. 


THE 
S^I     FOURTH 
ESTATE 


(;(.)N\  F.N'TIOXITFS 


CRAIG  KKWEDY 


(No.  2) — Showing  different  cover  treatment  by  papers 
in  the  same  field. 


This  picture  (No.  2)  shows  the  front  cover  pages  of  two  pub- 
lications in  the  same  field.  You  will  observe  that  one  gives  up  the 
space  to  a  single  advertisement,  which  if  the  page  is  to  be  sold 
at  all  seems  to  me  to  be  preferable  to  dividing  it,  for  the  reason 
that  the  larger  advertisement  has  a  news  value  which  smaller 
ones  have  not;  and  in  the  other  case  the  use  of  a  conventional 
design  with  an  open  space  in  the  center  in  which  appears  with 
every  issue  a  different  portrait  of  some  person  prominent  in  the 
field  to  which  it  caters. 

Here  we  have  a  contrast  (No.  3)  in  the  picture  of  a  publication 
which  uses  an  artist's  design  of  the  title  of  the  publication  with  a 
decorative  border  and  the  remainder  in  typographic  display.  The 
other  uses  a  photograph  illustrating  a  department  of  activity  of 
the  field  to  which  the  journal  caters.  This  appeals  to  me  as  being 
an  admirable  thing  to  do.    Both  designs  are  to  be  commended. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALIS^I 


119 


On  the  "  American  Printer  "  we  change  the  cover  monthly, 
using  from  two  to  four  colors,  with  a  change  of  style  and  texture 
of  the  cover  paper  used.  The  four  designs  (No.  4)  show  the 
method  of  treatment  afforded  by  the  title.  On  one  you  will  note 
we  have  used  something  illustrative  of  the  word  '*  American  " — 
the  eagle,  emblematic  bird  of  freedom ;  on  another  a  design 
typifying  the  month ;  another  illustrating  something  relat- 
ing to  the  printer ;  on  a  fourth  a  design  which  is  purely  deco- 
rative. 

For  this  (No.  5)  and  the  other  pictures  showing  typographic 


(No.  3) — Two  good  cover  pages. 


design  as  it  ought  to  be.  which  immediately  follow,  I  am  forced  to 
go  to  the  magazines.  The  principal  reason  the  magazines  show 
better  typographical  results  is  that  they  do  not,  as  do  most 
trade  papers,  depend  upon  their  own  judgment  in  making  de- 
cisions as  to  typographic  construction.  The  magazine  editors 
put  the  work  into  the  hands  of  printer-experts  just  as  they  would 
put  the  designing  of  a  house  in  the  hands  of  an  architect,  or  the 
construction  of  a  bridge  into  those  of  an  engineer. 

The  Century  Company,  when  it  came  to  the  point  of  putting 
its  magazine  into  new  form,  employed  Will  Bradley  to  do  the 
work.  We  see  here  illustrated  side  by  side  the  results  he  attained. 
Both  are  good.  Mr.  Bradley's  design  is  somewhat  less  conven- 
tional than  its  predecessor  and  a  little  more  up-to-date.  If  you 
read  the  "  Century  "  you  will  agree  also  that  its  present  type  pages 
are  easier  to  read  than  were  those  of  a  year  ago. 


120 


LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 


This  slide  (No.  6)  shows  what  Benjamin  Sherbow  has  done 
for  "'  jNIcClure's."  On  the  left  is  the  first  reading  page  of  the  num- 
ber, subordinating  the  title  of  the  magazine,  emphasizing  the  lead- 
ing article,  and  giving  large  space  to  a  drawing  illustrating  it.  A 
readable  type  face  in  lower  case  of  a  large  size  gives  the  title  of 


\    oAmerican 


V-^y.v^ST 


■ys7^< 


NewYork 

OjuJti  T'libh.'h'.H'^  Compcrty 

J5  0iy  KidPiVe 


Ihe 
A.merican  Printer 


(No.  4) — Same  cover  with  four  different  motives.  . 

the  article  and  the  name  of  the  author  prominence,  and  the  edi- 
torial note  accompanying  the  heading,  which  has  become  a  feature 
of  many  of  the  magazines,  affords  a  decorative  appearance. 

Here  are  contrasting  first  reading  pages  (No.  7).     One  evi- 
dences a  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  publisher  to  sell  any  space 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 


121 


the  advertiser  may  desire,  and  the  other  measvtres  up  to  the  best 
standards  of  dignity,  artistic  appearance,  etc.  There  are  of  course 
different  ways  of  making  up  the  paper  that  are  correct.     The 


(fc  C^IITURJ 


(No.  5) — Will  Bradley's  changes  (on  the  right)  in  the 
style  of  the  "  Century." 


pubUsher  of  the  "  Upholsterer,"  as  you  will  note,  gives  on  the 
first  reading  page  the  names  of  those  who  are  responsible  for  its 
publication,  which  the  New  York  State  law  requires  shall  be  a 


122 


LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 


feature  of  every  publication,  and  he  begins  his  editorial  matter 
on  the  same  page.     It  is  a  somewhat  unusual,  although  entirely 


The  Honesty  of  Honest  Tom 

Wlial  Really  Happened  al  the  Bank  Meeting 


The  Honey 

Bee — by  Samuel  Menvin 

HFS^^fe-^ 

Stary  of  a  Woman  in  Rnotx    j~C':=.l=i?L^'^ 

J~^L^L'^.: — : 

He  —  ItLW,  t™-  .^  «— .  ™        tl^"  ^^^^ 

:: rr*^ ::r..-_"_c      1  — k - -«i. -* ii~ iv™. -*. »k     _r--'— — — ' 

^T3:31^'H      — 

ti.t!r;z,":z'Jx^£    =i''rr3.-t7^ 

=??rrrEd"     ^ 

:^'C.V'-sS'r:;t::;   :£^5;-v==3 

Kmi 

fmW^Ws^^r. 

§£f=S?:^JS^ 

SBii^s^^sJ 

^B 

5S^.H-3?t-S.'=3  S^^=^="^~-f="^ 

5^SS^J^ii 

^^S^^^ 

(No.  6) — Benjamin  Sherhow's  arrangement  of 
"  McCliire's  "  typography. 


(No.  7) — A  contrast  hi  first  reading  page  make-up. 

permissible,  form  of  make-up.    Usually  the  first  page  begins  with 
the  leading  contributed  article. 

Considering    further    the    matter    of    expense    in    make-uj 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 


123 


these  pages  from  "Advertising  &  Selling"    (No.  8)   show  that 
sometimes  the  least  expensive  is  at  the  same  time  the  most  effec- 


Why  We  Must  Cut  Down  Selling  Cost 

|f^          The  Mooted  Subject  of  HumoroiuToucb  in  Copy           /ffl 

\^'^'^LV,Z. 

^\             ■.— -.':?r-           •   ^1 

f^^^^^rj£^  SSSSri^SS  Hi'SHiHiHSs 

?iiS^^-H!:  :rii?=S==i?i'iS  !?ir^:'5l-;i^,t^^-.: 

fl^^'s^i—  s"t^?^)fS^-  ^^p3^S 

J^SSt^X^I^^^  *'"""•'  r-.-r-^^'  "^  •-  -^  •.  -'..ifTT  n?,*'^ 

T''^"''"'"Tt^-'^-'^  cita^^ 't^ crvi^  s^fis.'C'irrv'i'*" 

?S"!!!:'  mfftl  dm:&: 

§^^|^£=  ^Ji^tTcT  W^W^ 

S'Sir^iisS:   ^— .ITT^ ^'^^Si^SSiS— 

IS^S  RfcH  KIH 

""JSTIi^SI  S,2r^  ^^^^i^^^j^^  2r^£;=2;x:::ii?^ 

S:«S;:.X:^«':^~vt?  ztizr:zt:itr.::^z:  t^y^z^^T.JzrJr^ 

^li^H^^I  ~^^r^4  '^^^^?. 

SraH^ri"-^  r^;.^H^Jr£=^--^  ::rl"=^'r^--JH 

^B^B^B 

:  #s;|  l*^i.HS|| 

Si:^"{^H:^u?c^  SJijSiic^.Xt;  ^'^''^'-^fT*"™.*'^'-^ 

iisa-^;a.^™ism                                     , 

(No.  8) — Both  correct,  but  one  is  less  expensive. 

tive  course  to  follov^.    A  decorative  panel  as  shown  on  the  right- 
hand  page  costs  something  to  design,  and  it  takes  longer  to  put  the 


(No.  9) — Effective  art  treatment  of  a  mechanical  subject. 

type  matter  into  it  than  is  the  case  where  it  is  not  used.     The 

contrasting  page  is  less  expensive  to  construct  and  easier  to  read. 

We  trade  paper  publishers  do  not  spend  enough  on  our  illus- 


124 


LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 


trations.  It  is  the  usual  course  to  make  a  halftone,  not  infre- 
quently of  the  dollar  minimum  variety,  of  a  photograph  as  it 
comes  in,  without  retouching  or  re-etching.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
a  subject  may  be  handled  by  an  artist  in  a  dozen  different  ways. 
Reference  is  here  made,  not  to  the  different  processes  of  engrav- 
ing, with  which  you  are  of  course  familiar,  but  to  the  different 
methods  by  which  the  artist  may  handle  the  subject.  Such 
treatment  adds  somewhat  to  the  expense,  of  course,  but  very 
much  to  the  effect. 

Here  is  illustrated  (No.  9)  a  method  of  showing  a  mechanical 
subject  that  is  new  and  much  to  be  commended.  As  you  will 
note,  the  shading  is  done  not  upon  the  picture  of  the  article  illus- 


(No.  10) — Careless  page  make-up. 

trated,  but  upon  the  background,  permitting  the  picture  itself  to 
stand  out  in  strong  relief. 

Here  is  another  example  (No.  10)  of  how  not  to  do  it,  show- 
ing the  easy,  careless  way  in  which  we  are  apt  to  place  illustra- 
tions in  reading  pages. 

On  this  slide  (No.  11)  is  contrasted  a  better  and  more  artistic 
way.  You  will  observe  that  the  illustrations  are  grouped  by  them- 
selves in  a  panel  opposite  the  reading  matter.  This  particular 
article  related  to  improvements  in  the  construction  of  printing 
presses.  By  putting  the  pictures  together  the  steps  of  develop- 
ment as  demonstrated  by  them  are  more  easily  comprehended 
than  would  be  the  case  if  they  were  scattered  all  over  the  two 
pages  of  type  matter  in  which  they  are  described. 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 


125 


On  this  slide  (No.  12)  I  have  illustrated  two  different 
methods  of  grouping.  On  one  page  the  illustrations  are  dis- 
tributed  through   the   type   matter   which   is   run   around   them, 


li^^i^^ 


(No.  11) — Correct  grouping  of  inartistic  illustrations. 


(No.  12) — Two  methods  of  correct  grouping. 


126  LECTURES  IN  THE  FORUM 

adding  to  the  cost,  whereas  on  the  opposite  page  the  illustrations 
have  been  pasted  upon  a  background  of  tinted  paper,  and  a  half- 
tone made  of  the  whole.  The  effect  is  better  and  the  process  less 
costly. 

Now  we  come  to  the  typographic  arrangement  of  the  editorial 
pages.  Here  are  two  pages  from  "Silk"  (No.  13).  You  will 
note  that  the  editorials  are  designated  as  such.  They  are  sepa- 
rated by  small  ornaments  depicting  the  butterfly  wings  which  the 
publication  uses  throughout  its  pages,  giving  some  distinction  to  it. 


(No.  13) — Good  arrangement  of  editorial  pages. 

The  name  of  the  publication  is  also  placed  upon  the  pages  in  an 
unconventional  manner.  The  names  of  the  organization  to  which 
the  publication  belongs,  showing  its  close  association  with  the 
trade,  are  also  included. 

The  other  extreme  of  the  arrangement  of  editorial  pages  is 
illustrated  in  these  two  (No.  14)  from  the  "American  Printer." 
They  are  not  designated  as  editorial  pages,  but  are  so  accepted  by 
the  readers  through  a  long-established  custom  of  presenting  the 
opinions  of  the  paper  in  this  way.  Nothing  of  a  distracting 
nature,  such  as  w^as  shown  in  the  preceding  illustration,  appears 
in  connection  with  this  editorial  matter.  It  is  entirely  impersonal 
in  character,  which  the  editors  believe  to  be  a  commendable 
feature. 

Using  the  editorial  pages  in  the  way  just  shown  necessitates 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 


127 


the  giving  of  information  often  included  in  them  in  another  way. 
This  we  do  in  the  "  American  Printer  "  by  putting  them  on  the 
index  page.  Also,  we  adopt  a  plan  that  we  believe  to  be  a 
good  one,  but  which  is  not  often  followed,  of  publishing  in  con- 
nection with  the  information  as  to  subscription  rates,  time  of 
publication,  etc.,  an  enumeration  of  the  subsidiary  fields  to  which 
the  paper  caters.  We  also  publish  monthly  a  table  of  contents, 
which  all  publications  do  not  do,  but  which  they  should  do. 

Here  is  another  illustration   (No.   15)   of  how  not  to  do  it, 
showing  two  pages  of  advertisements  and  reading  notices  thrown 


(No.  14) — Simplicity  in  arrangement  of  editorial  pages. 


together  in  a  very  inartistic  form.  In  the  "  American  Printer  " 
we  publish  both  reading  matter  and  advertisements,  of  course,  but 
we  group  the  ads  at  the  front  and  back,  permitting  no  commingling 
with  reading  matter.  The  advertisers  sometimes  ask  for  position 
next  to  reading  matter,  but  they  never  get  it,  and  since  the  rule  is 
applied  impartially,  such  requests  do  not  give  us  serious  concern. 
My  theory  in  regard  to  the  typographic  display  of  advertise- 
ments is  that  it  should  be  so  simple  in  arrangement  as  to  present 
to  the  reader  the  maximum  of  message  and  the  minimum  of 
method.  It  is  said  of  a  well-dressed  man  that  he  will  be  neither 
so  poorly  dressed  nor  so  extravagantly  dressed  as  to  cause  you 
to  remember  when  he  has  gone  from  your  presence  just  how  he 


128 


LECTURES  IN  THE  FORU^I 


was  dressed.     The  same  thing  is  true  of  advertisements.     Here 
are  two  pages  of  typographic  display    (No.   i6)    that  measure 


.ifH.~-;rEiE~"-~-  ■'■ 

^Pilgrim  Ledger 

'"'}^^^^]fi^_ 

..^r»^^..oa. 

JNTERNATIONU^BONI^ 

— '*— — 

ALLEVD\tX    LEtMieR 
Oui.  W.  Ridrr  A  Ca. 

,  j.'cu^^^r^^p^,^ 

CRESCENT  BRUSH  WORKS.  Tsor.  R  I.     :rr=:-i-rirr~ 


Boost  Your  Business  ""Diamonds  I  ^p:.ri~^'^- 


■iU  TDIS  PREMnM  CimiE  MOI- 


(No.  1^)— Inartistic  jumble  of  advertisements 
and  reading  notices. 


7,000  to  8,000  Impressions  Per  Hour 


Stokes  &  SmiilTRapid^  Rotary  Printing  Press 


STOKES  &  SHrrH  COMPANY 


(No.   i6) — Correct  advertisement  display. 

up   pretty   nearly  to    the  highest   standard   of   perfection.     The 
articles  advertised  are  illustrated  clearly,  the  type  arrangement  is 


IN  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 


129 


in  accord  with  art  principles,  and  the  message  of  the  advertiser 
is  so  presented  as  to  be  easily  comprehended. 

Finally,  the  one  point  of  view  we  trade  paper  workers  must 
always  keep  before  us  is  that  of  the  subscriber.  In  the  office  in 
which  I  work  the  thought  we  try  to  have  constantly  uppermost  in 
our  minds  is  to  make  the  paper  useful.  Set  that  word  useful  in 
bold  face  italic.  On  this  slide  (No.  17)  you  see  what  the  editors 
of  "  Factory  "  do  to  catch  and  hold  the  interest  of  the  reader.    On 


J^iSM^ 

From  the  Editors"  Workshop 

owTcns  b  ukcs        Kii 

W 

BUSINESS  EQUIPMENT 
JOURNAL 


IN^  EOUIPMFJVT  JOURNAL 


(No.  17) — Catering  to  the  reader. 

the  right-hand  side  is  illustrated  the  same  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  '*  Business  Equipment  Journal."  The  lower  half  of  the  page 
is  devoted  to  a  blank  to  be  filled  in  by  the  head  of  the  establish- 
ment subscribing  for  the  publication,  this  information  directing 
the  attention  of  his  associates  to  articles  and  advertisements  on 
different  pages  which  in  his  opinion  they  ought  to  read. 

]\Iany  trade  papers  conduct  a  special  service  bureau  for  sub- 
scribers and  advertisers.  The  trade  paper  editor,  occupying  as 
he  does  a  sort  of  clearing  house  for  information,  is  able  with 
the  expenditure  of  but  little  time  and  eff'ort  to  render  service  in 
many  special  ways  to  his  clientele  that  is  of  much  value  to  them. 

What  is  the  value  in  dollars  and  cents  of  a  subscriber  to  a 
publication?  Once  we  said  it  was  represented  by  the  amount  of 
the  annual  subscription.  J\Ir.  Emerson  P.  Harris  some  years  ago 
advanced  the  proposition  that  a  subscriber  is  worth  much  more 
than  that.    He  said  in  effect  that  if  a  publication  has  ten  thousand 


I30  INDUSTRIAL  JOURNALISM 

subscribers  at  a  dollar  each  and  advertising  patronage  to  the 
amount  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  making  the  annual 
overturn  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  dollars,  the  value  of  the 
subscriber  to  the  paper  is  not  one  dollar,  but  eleven  dollars.  I 
accept  that  as  being  a  proper  statement  and  believe  that  it  is 
generally  so  accepted  among  trade  paper  publishers. 

Getting  new  subscribers  is  expensive.  It  is  less  expensive  and 
more  satisfactory  all  around  to  keep  the  old  subscribers.  That 
is  why  the  editor  should  keep  the  welfare  of  subscribers  always 
in  mind.    Their  interests  should  have  the  right  of  way. 

In  conclusion,  may  I  say  that  I  am  aware  that  the  statements 
I  have  been  making  are  very  elemental.  Some  of  the  points 
may  seem  to  be  unimportant,  but  even  a  slight  detail  becomes 
important  when  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  thing  right.  "  Trifles 
make  perfection,  but  perfection  is  no  trifle." 


LD21-95OT-7/37 


y 


iito 


